Extensiveness of Victims and Perceptual Intensity of Covid-19 in Visual Experiences of the New York Times and Folha De S.PAULO

Abstract

This article examines the objective and quantifiable data conversion in visual and syncretic discursive forms aimed at mobilizing experiences of the conveyed senses. In addition to making the invisible visible, what is proposed here is to make the unspeakable visible by analyzing the overdetermination of the effect of intensity, proximity, and presence on news content. To achieve this goal this paper uses empirical data obtained from infographics printed in The New York Times (NYT) and Folha de S.Paulo newspapers on the covid-19 pandemic. This was chosen because the objective data in numbers and figures affect how true opinion is shaped and the infographics were recurrently employed (during our research period) by all media as an effective mechanism for understanding the facts. The empirical methodology is anchored in the perspective of tension semiotics that provides theoretical foundations for studying the sensitive dimension of interactional processes.