When Does an Infographic Say More Than a Thousand Words?

Learning From Science News via Interactive and Animated Data Visualizations: An Investigation Combining Eye Tracking, Online Survey, and Cued Retrospective Reporting

“…In a first study, Holmqvist and Wartenberg (2005) showed that infographics can prolong the reading of an associated text more than pictures or drawings do. More recently, de Haan et al (2018) confirmed this result, suggesting that infographics are used to get an overall impression of a news story but are not considered in detail. Research on multimedia learning illustrates that eye movements are further affected by the specific combination of textual and visual information—that is, whether a diagram is presented within or after a body of text (Johnson & Mayer, 2012).…”

“…Moreover, as suggested by the literature (McCay-Peet et al, 2012), animation can lead to sustained attention: The fixation duration was longest for participants who were exposed to the interactive-animated visualization. Importantly, however, interactivity and animation are only successful if they are simple and easy to use, as individuals aim to have information quickly available in order to rely on effortless processing (for similar notions regarding infographics, see de Haan et al, 2018). Despite these promising findings, it would be shortsighted to unconditionally recommend interactivity and animation in data visualizations in order to promote news consumers' understanding of science-related news.…”

Visualizing the triple bottom line: A large‐scale automated visual content analysis of European corporations' website and social media images

“…Images help people break through the clutter of online information (Paivio, 1991), and are thus an important medium for companies to communicate with stakeholders. Not only are images important for attracting readers to websites or media content, they also evoke specific effects: images aid in understanding contents better, elicit emotions (Smith‐Rodden & Ash, 2012), and improve memory and recall of information (de Haan et al, 2018). Comprehensibility is of great importance in CSR disclosure, which has scored low on readability and understandability measures (Lock & Seele, 2016).…”

“…The visual dimension of communicating CSR activities has often been neglected (Tuan, Dalli, Gandolfo, & Gravina, 2019). However, decades of research into visuals and their effects show that they attract readers to media (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1998), enhance understanding and memory (de Haan, Kruikemeier, Lecheler, Smit, & van der Nat, 2018; Smith‐Rodden & Ash, 2012), and are processed quickly by the human brain, even faster than text (Thorpe, Fize, & Marlot, 1996).…”

Automated Visual Content Analysis (AVCA) in Communication Research: A Protocol for Large Scale Image Classification with Pre-Trained Computer Vision Models

“…Images are key in online communication: they enhance information processing, memory, and emotions (De Haan et al, 2018), and serve as an entry point to media content (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996). For this sample study, focusing on Europe's largest corporations' visual sustainability communication, we analyzed the website images of the 25 most profitable European companies (Forbes, 2017; see Appendix Table 1).…”