Accepting the Digital Challenge: Public Perceptions and Attitudes toward Interactivity in Data Journalism

In the context of digitization, traditional journalism is facing transformation and innovation. Among them, the interactivity of visual graphics in data journalism is crucial for attracting and retaining online users, but few studies have examined public perceptions and attitudes toward it. In this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 13; no. 19; p. 10857
Main Authors Zhang, Boning, Zhang, Yuxin, Pan, Younghwan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2023
Subjects
Analysis
attitude toward journalism
Attitudes
Business metrics
Cognition & reasoning
data journalism
Design
enjoyment and fun
interactive data visualization
Journalism
perceived interactivity
Perceptions
Usability
user engagement
User experience
Visualization
Visualization (Computers)
China
Germany
New York
United States > US
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Summary:In the context of digitization, traditional journalism is facing transformation and innovation. Among them, the interactivity of visual graphics in data journalism is crucial for attracting and retaining online users, but few studies have examined public perceptions and attitudes toward it. In this study, we proposed a model to validate the relationship between users’ perceived interactivity and their attitudes toward data journalism, and we included user affective and cognitive factors (enjoyment and engagement) related to this as possible mediating variables in the model for validation. We conducted experiments (n = 75) using data journalism containing map visualizations with three levels of interactivity (low, medium, and high) in China. Furthermore, an exploratory evaluation of the experimental group provided further insights into the differences in interactions between groups, and the emerging five key concepts of data journalism design. Overall, all our hypotheses are supported, with enjoyment and engagement mediating the relationship between perceived interactivity and users’ attitudes toward the news. In addition, the experimental group with higher interaction potential also reported more positive attitudes toward journalism. Therefore, if data journalism and visualization designers want to attract and retain users in the future, enhancing user interaction on news pages will be a proven method.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app131910857