Discovering Image Usage Online: A Case Study with "Flatten the Curve"

Understanding the spread of images across the web helps us understand the reuse of scientific visualizations and their relationship with the public. The "Flatten the Curve" graphic was heavily used during the COVID-19 pandemic to convey a complex concept in a simple form. It displays two c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2023 ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) pp. 293 - 294
Main Authors Jones, Shawn M., Oyen, Diane
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.06.2023
Subjects
COVID-19
image discovery
Oral communication
Pandemics
Search engines
social media
Social networking (online)
Visualization
Web and internet services
web archiving
web mining
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Summary:Understanding the spread of images across the web helps us understand the reuse of scientific visualizations and their relationship with the public. The "Flatten the Curve" graphic was heavily used during the COVID-19 pandemic to convey a complex concept in a simple form. It displays two curves comparing the impact on case loads for medical facilities if the populace either adopts or fails to adopt protective measures during a pandemic. We use five variants of the "Flatten the Curve" image as a case study for viewing the spread of an image online. To evaluate its spread, we leverage three information channels: reverse image search engines, social media, and web archives. Reverse image searches give us a current view into image reuse. Social media helps us understand a variant's popularity over time. Web archives help us see when it was preserved, highlighting a view of popularity for future researchers. Our case study leverages document URLs can be used as a proxy for images when studying the spread of images online.
ISSN:2575-8152
DOI:10.1109/JCDL57899.2023.00064