Encoding the UX: User Interface as a Site of Encounter between Data Journalists and Their Constructed Audiences

Abstract

This paper examines how data journalism producers encode their audiences' user experienceor how they construct meaning within the parameters of a user interface. We argue that interfaces enact data journalists' perceptual image of their audience, and are therefore a meaningful object of study to explore: (a) the relationship between data reporters and their publics; (b) the tensions that emerge from that relationship; and (c) how those tensions are negotiated. Our combined evaluation of producer and artefact perspectives is based on interviews with 12 data journalism producers in legacy UK newsrooms, and interaction design, and multimodal discourse analysis of 12 stories produced by our informants. Findings suggest that data journalism producers' efforts to create content that resonates with their audiences have resulted in the diversification of data journalism formats, and a more mature view of interactivity, with producers striving to offer experiences in whose meaning negotiation the reader takes centre stage. The reader is perceived as a co-creator of meaning through the expectation of either physical interaction or cognitive immersion. Yet, the paternalistic element, even in the most discovery-/ reader-driven stories, remains stronger, manifesting in a carefully crafted experience and pointing to journalism producers' traditional self-perception as gatekeepers of information.

Navigating Interactive Story Spaces. The Architecture of Interactive Narratives in Online Journalism

“…Interactivity is crucial within these story spaces because it affects the users' experience of the narrative and therefore the construction of meaning in journalistic stories, as Anderson and Borges-Rey (2019) and Nash (2012) have demonstrated. Interactivity draws our attention to a question that simmers underneath the innovation of narrative formats in journalism and addresses the changing dynamics between journalists and their audience.…”

“…However, the focus on multimodality and multimediality has left the interactive dimension of the genre somewhat underappreciated. Studies in the fields of data journalism (Anderson and Borges-Rey 2019;De Haan et al 2018;Drucker et al 2018;Segel and Heer 2010), interactive documentary (Nash 2012), and news games (Bogost 2008;Ferrer-Conill et al 2020) suggest that interactivity plays a role in the construction of meaning regarding the news. Focussing on digital longform journalism, Hernandez and Rue (2015) analysed the design of multimedia narratives with an emphasis on interactivity.…”

“…However, whilst research in journalism studies has particularly scrutinised the multimediality and multimodality of digital longform journalism (Hiippala 2017;Greussing and Boomgaarden 2019;Jacobson, Marino, and Gutsche 2016;Marino 2016;Pincus, Wojcieszak, and Boomgaarden 2017), little attention has been given to the distinctive role of interactivity and how this specific feature of online journalism enables user agency in the construction of a plot. A notable exception is the work of Anderson and Borges-Rey (2019), who examine the relationship between journalists and their audience in the context of data visualisations. Like in the early studies of narrative data visualisation by Segel and Heer (2010), the academic work on digital longform journalism has mainly focussed on categorising the variety of interactive journalistic non-fiction.…”

Data Journalism in the Global South

“…This is because data journalists around the world tell stories based on rather small data sets and use basic statistical analysis to keep the stories accessible to their sometimes less data-literate audience (see e.g. Anderson and Borges-Rey 2019). Very few newsrooms have the resources and institutional capacity to involve hardcore computer and data scientists or specialists in analytics and analysis (c.f.…”

Remaining in Control with an Illusion of Interactivity: The Paternalistic Side of Data Journalism

“…In data journalism, these two conflicting control ideals co-exist, much because of that in the context of data journalism visualizations, journalistic news angles are often, but not always, supported by interactivity. Recently, however, data journalists have become rather reluctant to use interactivity (Anderson and Borges-Rey 2019). Once a positive ideal and enabler for journalism, interactive features have somewhat dropped in status.…”