A 3 (crisis response strategy) x 3 (medium) factorial design experiment was conducted to determine if information graphics conveyed through online news sources may be more beneficial for organizational reputations during some crisis situations than the use of news videos and text-based news stories. Variables examined include cognitive and affective appraisal, third-person effect, behavioral response and crisis response strategy. Recent research in organizational crisis communications has pointed to the fact that more information is needed regarding how individuals react cognitively and affectively to crisis communications. Current crisis communications literature is also sparse concerning the behavioral aspects of crisis message reception and social media usage. This study addressed these concerns and built on the established framework of Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT).

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the creation of a cervical cancer health prevention infographic, geared toward African American women ages 30 to 65, to be potentially used to raise health literacy and influence positive behaviors towards practicing prevention measures—ultimately preventing unnecessary deaths. This dissertation also produced a cervical cancer health prevention infographic prototype for African American Women ages 30 to 65 to be further tested and implemented within future health communication campaigns. Cervical Cancer is both preventable and treatable (if diagnosed during early stages); therefore the amount of individuals dying from the cancer should be minimal. Still, African American Women in this study’s target health population are dying from Cervical Cancer the most. Existing research highlights that social determinants of health (like income, education and literacy) play varying roles as barriers to prevention (Baldwin, 1996; J. L. Davis et al., 2013; Egbert & Parrott, 2001; Ford et al., 2013; McKinnon, Harper, & Moore, 2011; Sung, Alema-Mensah, & Blumenthal, 2002; Williams & Templin, 2013). . This dissertation specifically focuses on targeting the potential to increase health literacy on Cervical Cancer to potentially positively influence prevention uptake. Drawing upon fields like health communication, visual communication and social science research, this research endeavor presents an interdisciplinary approach to potentially solving health communication issue within an at-risk population. The theoretical framework in guiding infographic production for this dissertation was the Health Belief Model, which is widely used in health communication research to assess failure of prevention uptake (du Pré, 2014; Glanz et al., 2005; Maibach & Parrott, 1995; Rosenstock, 2000). The Health Belief Model in conjunction with existing literature regarding health literacy, cultural stigma and relevance in communication campaigns geared toward African American Women ages 30 to 65, infographic content was created and presented to study participants via six interactive focus groups. The focus group methodology of qualitative research allowed for 17 study participants to confidentially engage in dialogue with peers concerning the issue at hand while also helping to create the content hierarchy, enhance and suggest visuals, colors and themes of the proposed infographic. Iterative data analysis approaches allow for constant assessment of study outcomes and themes. This study produces theoretical, practical and methodological implications for future research on the lacking area of scholarly literature. Findings from this dissertation suggest a need to (1) test the proposed infographic for potential national health campaign usage, (2) a need for more long-term collaborative community efforts for continual population access in research on Cervical Cancer prevention, and (3) future assessment of a newer form of focus group research that focuses on incorporation smaller participant groups for increased hands-on interactivity.

Ce travail de thèse de doctorat est placé dans le domaine de la Géovisualisation utilisé pour mettre en œuvre des systèmes de aide à la décision territoriale. Ce travail de recherche est né grâce à l'établissement d’un accord entre l’Université Tor Vergata de Rome, et l’INSA (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées), de Lyon. La co-tutelle de cette thèse est née pour la nécessité d’une approche multidisciplinaire à le sujet de recherche, en profitant des compétences en matière d'urbanisme, de l’environnement et de la modélisation de territoire à l'école doctorale ‘Geoinformazione’ de l'Université de Tor Vergata, et en utilisant d’avantage les compétences dans les systèmes d'information spatiale et de la géovisualisation au laboratoire LIRIS de l'INSA. Malgré ces avantages, l’un des problèmes les plus courants en visualisation de l’information est de représenter les données d’une manière claire et compréhensible. Actuallement il ya peu de fondations scientifiques pour guider les chercheurs dans la conception visuelle de données spatiales ; il existe des méthodes systématiques limitée pour évaluer l'efficacité des solutions proposées. Dans ce travail de recherche de doctorat, des contributions seront fournis à la création d'une méthode d'évaluation systématique pour évaluer et développer des affichages visuels efficaces. Dans ce contexte l’objectif de la recherche était de trouver une méthode simple et empirique - un test en ligne - qui pourrait être facilement reproductible pour differentes scenarios, pour soutenir l’administration publique dans différents contextes et pour différentes tâches. / This PhD research work is placed in the domain of Geovisualization used to implement Territorial Intelligence and decision support systems. This research work was born through the establishment of an agreement between Tor Vergata University, Rome, and INSA (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées), Lyon. The co-supervision of this thesis was born from the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to the research topic, taking advantage of the skills in urban planning, environment and territory modeling at the Geoinformation doctoral school of Tor Vergata University, and taking advantage of the skills in Spatial Information Systems and Geovisualization at the LIRIS Laboratory of INSA. The motivation that led us to deal with this research topic was the perception of a lack of systematic methods and universally approved empirical experiments in data visualization domain. The experiments should consider different typologies of data, different environmental contexts, different indicators and methods of representations, etc., in order to support expert users in decision making, in the urban and territorial planning and in the implementation of environmental policies. In modern societies, we have to deal with a great amount of data every day and Geovisualization permits the management, exploration and display of big and heterogeneous data in an interactive way that facilitates decision making processes. Geovisualization gives the opportunity to the user to change the visual appearance of the maps, to explore different layers of data and to highlight problems in some areas by the citizens. Despite these advantages, one of the most common problems in Information Visualization is to represent data in a clear and comprehensible way. Spatial data have a complex structure that includes spatial component, thematic attributes, and often the temporal component Actually there are limited scientific foundations to guide researchers in visual design of spatial data, and there are limited systematic and standard methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the solutions proposed. In this Phd research work, some contributions will be provided to the creation of a systematic assessment method to evaluate and to develop effective geovisualization displays. An empirical evaluation test is proposed to assess the effectiveness of some map displays, analyzing the use of three elements of visual design: 1. the spatial indicators to be represented and their context of visualization, 2. the physical dimensions of map displays, 3. the visual variables to represent different layers of information.

A pesquisa busca alcançar novos aportes para estudos em infografia jornalística à medida que investiga qualidades, atividades profissionais e tecnologias envolvidas na produção de uma modalidade infográfica emergente, o infovis, contextualizada pelas potencialidades do meio digital e on-line, e sintonizada com práticas comunicacionais contemporâneas, que supera, em determinados aspectos, modelos infográficos anteriores. Com vistas a atingir nosso objetivo investigativo adotamos metodologia de pesquisa em duas etapas: 1) revisão conceitual de três referências teóricas fundamentais - visualização da informação, infografia jornalística e interatividade; e 2) proposta de análise de infovis com base na técnica de pesquisa de análise de conteúdo. Assim, o corpus empírico é constituído por 270 infovis de conteúdo temático político, sobretudo eleitoral, de quatro sítios jornalísticos - The New York Times, The Guardian, Folha de S. Paulo e O Estado de S. Paulo - veiculados entre jan. 2010 e dez. 2013. A partir de sistemático procedimento de análise elaborado segundo unidades e subunidades analíticas orientadas pelas três dimensões teóricas do dispositivo infovis (input, interface e output), obtivemos respostas codificadas para todas as peças do corpus. A leitura do formulário de análise preenchido gerou resultados e inferências sobre nossa amostra que apontam para aspectos produtivos pioneiros em infografia, como maior abertura comunicacional à audiência, emprego de ferramentas on-line e gratuitas para produção de infovis e utilização de tecnologia de atualização contínua dos dados visualizados. / The research seeks to offer new contributions for studies on journalistic infographics by investigating the qualities, professional activities, and technologies involved in the production of an emerging form of infographics, the infovis, within the context of the potential of online environments, in synch with contemporary communications practices, and which overcomes, in certain aspects, previous infographics models. In order to meet our research objective, we employed a two-stage method: 1) conceptual review of three fundamental theoretical subjects - information visualization, journalistic infographics, and interactivity; and 2) a proposal for the analysis of infovis based on the technique of content analysis research. Thus, the empirical corpus is made up of 270 examples of infovis with political thematic content, mainly electoral, from four journalistic websites - The New York Times, The Guardian, Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo - published between January 2010 and December 2013. Based on a systematic procedure for analysis, organized by analytical units and subunits, as well as by the three theoretical facets of the infovis device (input, interface and output), we obtained codified responses for all pieces within the corpus. From the reading of the completed analysis form, results and inferences were generated for our sample, which point to pioneering productive features in infographics, such as greater communicative openness with the audience, use of free online tools for the production of infovis, and use of real-time technology for on-screen data

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adelina Bracco.pdf: 40788200 bytes, checksum: 14cfe98f4d49a1559fda87bce2ff33c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-08 / This research analyzes infographics published by daily printed newspapers trying to understand how they could introduce a new dimension to journalistic discourse considering its characteristic of building veridictory and credible saying effects. A qualitative approach was applied focusing on distinguishing general rules of organization of infographic structures with a view to establishing their semiotic status, that is, the way they produce signification from current facts they are related to. Our methodological support was that of discursive semiotics and its recent theoretical developments such as sensitive and aesthesis problematic regarding various types of discourses, aesthesis being considered as the condition of sensing the meaning. To carry out the analysis within semiotic field we turned to theories of semi-symbolic systems, interaction and sense regimes, enunciation, gerativity of signification and works on syncretism of expression. For that purpose the foundations of the study were the works of Ana Claudia Mei Alves de Oliveira, Eric Landowski, Jean-Marie Floch, José Luiz Fiorin, Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros e Algirdas-Julien Greimas. The corpus was extracted from printed editions of Brazilian newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and Folha de S. Paulo published between 2008 and 2011. A collection of eighteen infographics was formed with different dimensions and appearing on various news sections of the aforementioned papers. We adopted as selection criteria the semisymbolic strategies understood as strategies capable of enhancing aesthetic density of journalistic narrative. We applied the same meta-language in our analytical approach in order to distinguish how different formations of infographics were constructed focusing our investigative attention on the relations between the plane of expression and the plane of content. We analyzed how infographics established links with other verbal and visual organizations found on the bi-planar space of a printed page in which topological, figurative, enunciative and axiological relations were distributed. We worked with the hypothesis that these infographics may be considered as syncretic and semi-symbolic formations conveying meaning that goes beyond conventional ones and processing the páthos of facts in different manners of enunciation. In relation to the interpretative doing on the part of the enunciatee this research suggested that there could be a further degree of modalization due to adjustment [ajustamento] regime, that is, a way of experiencing meaning emerging from a discursive interaction with printed media / Esta pesquisa analisa infográficos publicados pela mídia impressa diária, procurando entender como eles constroem uma nova dimensão do discurso jornalístico, considerando sua característica de produzir efeitos de dizer verdadeiro e credível. Tratase de uma pesquisa de cunho qualitativo, cujo objetivo foi depreender regras gerais de organização dos infográficos, com vistas a determinar-lhes o estatuto semiótico, ou seja, a maneira como constroem a significação dos fatos da atualidade a que se referem. Nossa base metodológica foi a semiótica discursiva e seus recentes desenvolvimentos teóricos tais como a problemática do sensível e da estesia nos mais diferentes discursos, entendendo-se por estesia a condição de sentir o sentido. Para realizar a análise, foram adotadas, dentro da semiótica, as teorias dos sistemas semissimbólicos, dos regimes de interação e de sentido, da enunciação, da geratividade da significação e estudos sobre sincretismo da expressão. Os autores consultados com essa finalidade foram: Ana Claudia Mei Alves de Oliveira, Eric Landowski, Jean-Marie Floch, José Luiz Fiorin, Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros e Algirdas-Julien Greimas. O corpus foi extraído das edições impressas dos jornais O Estado de S. Paulo e Folha de S. Paulo, publicadas entre 2008 e 2011. Foi realizado um recorte de dezoito infográficos de várias dimensões e de diferentes editorias, adotando como critério de seleção as estratégias semissimbólicas, entendidas como produtoras de adensamento da esteticidade da narrativa jornalística. Foi aplicada uma mesma metalinguagem como crivo de leitura, a fim de interpretar como se estabeleceram as diferenças entre as formações infográficas, concentrando a atenção investigativa nas relações entre o plano da expressão e o plano do conteúdo. Analisamos como os infográficos estabeleceram articulações com outras materialidades verbais e visuais no espaço biplanar da página em que se distribuem as relações topológicas, figurativas, enunciativas, narrativas e axiológicas. Trabalhamos com a hipótese de que tais artefatos podem ser considerados formações semissimbólicas sincréticas, com a realização de sentidos que extrapolam o convencional, processando o páthos engendrado pelos fatos com diferentes modos de enunciação. Na abordagem sobre o fazer interpretativo do enunciatário, a pesquisa sugeriu a existência de uma sobremodalização pelo regime de ajustamento, isto é, um sentir produtor de uma descoberta a partir de uma experiência vivida no embate discursivo com o meio impresso

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:30:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Maria Torres Alvarez.pdf: 9796970 bytes, checksum: 1ce21173e9432840f1a381eb874070b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis is part of the Education: Curriculum Doctoral Program - field of study New Technologies in Education, presenting itself as a result of studies conducted by this researcher in the last four years about the visual representation, and specifically, the infographics. The objective was to analyze the value of infographics as a teaching and learning strategy considering the hypothesis that reading and production of infographics by the apprentices can provide the enhancement of critical and creative thinking. To validate the hypothesis part of the research was devoted to the theoretical production that passed over areas of Education, Semiotics, Media and Cognitive Sciences. In the second phase of the research were planned and presented two editions of a research-training course for teachers within a context in which they could integrate into my research as collaborators. Both editions of the course were conducted in distance mode by the Instituto Ayrton Senna. For the production of the thesis, we used a qualitative approach, and each stage of the investigation were set out specific research methods. Thus, for the theoretical basis, we chose literature and bricolage method. In planning and development of research-training course was followed the method of action research. The software Implicative and Coesitive Hierarchical Classification (CHIC) and maps of clouds keyword (tag clouds) we found different angles of analysis of the data set collected in the course, which involved testimonials, dialogues and activities. From these data it was possible to know the impressions of the participants about the potential of infographics as a new resource for teaching and learning, and identify possible improvements of the proposed appropriation and dissemination of this practice in schools / A presente tese insere-se no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação: Currículo, na linha de pesquisa Novas Tecnologias em Educação, apresentando-se como fruto dos estudos realizados por esta pesquisadora nos últimos quatro anos sobre a representação visual e, especificamente, a infografia. O objetivo foi analisar o valor da infografia como instrumento de ensino e de aprendizagem considerando a hipótese de que a leitura e a produção de infográficos pelos próprios aprendizes podem propiciar o aprimoramento do pensar crítico e criativo. Para validar a hipótese, parte da investigação foi dedicada à produção do referencial teórico que transitou pelas áreas da Educação, da Semiótica, da Comunicação Social e das Ciências Cognitivas. No segundo momento da pesquisa foram planejadas e apresentadas duas edições de uma formação-investigação, dentro de um contexto em que sujeitos interessados na temática pudessem se integrar à minha pesquisa como colaboradores. Ambas as edições da formação foram realizadas na modalidade a distância pelo Instituto Ayrton Senna. Para a produção da tese, seguiu-se a abordagem qualitativa e, em cada etapa da investigação foram definidos métodos de pesquisa específicos. Sendo assim, para a fundamentação teórica, optou-se pela pesquisa bibliográfica aliada à bricolagem. No planejamento e desenvolvimento da formação-investigação, foi seguido o método de pesquisa-ação. O software Classificação Hierárquica Implicativa e Coercitiva (CHIC) e os mapas de nuvens de palavras-chave (tag clouds) foram utilizados para obter diversos ângulos de análise do conjunto de dados coletados no curso, que envolveu depoimentos, diálogos e atividades. A partir desses dados foi possível conhecer as impressões dos participantes sobre o potencial da infografia como um novo instrumento de ensino e de aprendizagem, bem como identificar possíveis desdobramentos da proposta de apropriação e disseminação dessa prática nas escolas

Cette thèse comprend trois expériences et deux prétests (N = 1135) dans lesquelles sont étudiés trois aspects fondamentaux du design statique des messages sur internet : son format (infographie, audio ou texte), sa couleur et sa typographie, sur la thématique du recyclage des déchets électroniques (études 1 et 2) puis à propos de la migration humaine (étude 3).L’étude des aspects graphiques est pertinente si l’on veut augmenter la force persuasive d’un message. Le format joue un rôle prépondérant (étude 1a), permettant à la fois de changer les attitudes, mais aussi d’ancrer ce changement dans le temps. Les couleurs, par contre, ne semblent pas faire varier la force persuasive du message ou amener les lecteurs à agir en faveur du recyclage (étude 1b). La typographie ne semble pas non plus jouer de rôle dans la dynamique persuasive, qu’elle soit jugée lisible ou peu lisible (étude 2). Des pistes théoriques concernant la personnalité des typographies et leur cohérence avec le contexte sont développées.L’analyse des composantes de l’ELM a révélé, dans chaque étude, le fort lien entre l’attitude des individus et leur sentiment de responsabilité personnelle envers la thématique abordée ainsi que leurs connaissances a priori. Nous avons également vu que les leviers de persuasion ne sont pas systématiquement les mêmes selon le besoin de cognition.Globalement, nous suggérons que les messages persuasifs doivent adopter un format permettant une analyse centrale à faible coût cognitif, utilisant une couleur principale et une typographie toutes deux lisibles et cohérentes avec la thématique développée, avec un argumentaire qui renforce le sentiment de responsabilité des lecteurs. / This thesis includes three experiments and two pre-tests (N = 1135) in which three fundamental aspects of static message design on the Internet are studied: its format (infographics, audio or text), its colour and typography, on the theme of electronic waste recycling (studies 1 and 2) and then on human migration (study 3).The study of graphic aspects is relevant if we want to increase the persuasive power of a message. The format plays a major role (study 1a), making it possible to change attitudes and to anchor this change over time. Colours, on the other hand, do not seem to vary the persuasive force of the message or to lead readers to act in favour of recycling (study 1b). Nor does typography seem to play a role in the persuasive dynamic, whether it is considered legible or difficult to read (study 2). Theoretical approaches regarding the personality of typographies and their coherence with the context are developed.The analysis of the components of the ELM revealed, in each study, the strong link between the attitude of individuals and their sense of personal responsibility towards the theme addressed as well as their a priori knowledge. We have also seen that the levers of persuasion are not systematically the same according to the need for cognition.We suggest that persuasive messages should adopt a format that allows for central analysis at low cognitive cost, using a main colour and typography that are both readable and consistent with the theme developed, with arguments that reinforce readers' sense of responsibility.

La presente investigación basada en que el diseño gráfico puede contribuir en la difusión de información sobre Protección y Bienestar Animal tiene como objetivo diseñar una propuesta infográfica que ayude a informar sobre la ley de manera más interactiva y atractiva. La metodología que se está usando tiene un enfoque cuantitativo por lo que se han utilizado técnicas de recolección de datos como encuestas mediante un cuestionario con preguntas específicas que permitan conocer al público y testeo del producto. La solución que se plantea para solucionar el problema es el diseño de una infografía interactiva, la cual tuvo un impacto positivo en los usuarios. Los resultados arrojaron que la solución propuesta resulta atractiva e interesante (88.5% de los encuestados) y no presenta dificulta en la comprensión del contenido (84.6%). Por lo que se concluye que existe un problema de difusión de información sobre la ley de Protección y Bienestar Animal y la propuesta infográfica resulta un recurso útil. / Trabajo de investigación

Visualizações de grafos para comunicação aparecem numa variedade de contextos que vão do acadêmico-científico até o jornalístico e até mesmo artístico. Diferente de visualizações de grafos para exploração e análise de dados, essas imagens são usadas para “contar uma história” que já se conhece ao invés da “procura de uma nova história” nos dados. Apesar de ser possível usar software para desenho de grafos e edição de diagramas para produzí-las, visualizações feitas dessa forma nem sempre preenchem os requisitos visuais impostos pelos seus contextos de uso. Programas de edição de imagens podem ser usados para fazer as melhorias necessárias, mas nem todas as modificações são possíveis e o processo de editar essas imagens pode exigir muito tempo e esforço. Neste trabalho, apresentamos uma investigação de visualizações nodo-aresta estáticas para comunicação e de como facilitar sua criação. A partir de uma desconstrução dessas imagens, identificando seus elementos essenciais, e analisando como são criadas, derivamos um conjunto de requisitos que ferramentas para a criação dessas visualizações devem preencher. Para verificar o efeito da metodologia na melhora do fluxo de trabalho de designers, com mais poder e flexibilidade, foi concebido e implementado um protótipo chamado GraphCoiffure. Com um foco especial em auxiliar usuários na criação de visualizações para publicação, Graph- Coiffure foi projetado como uma aplicação standalone que seria usada como um passo intermediário entre programas de desenho e edição de grafos e editores gráficos. Ele combina ferramentas para manipulação interativa de layouts com estilização similar a CSS para permitir que usuários criem e editem visualizações nodo-aresta estáticas. Ilustramos o funcionamento de GraphCoiffure com quatro casos de uso: a adaptação do layout de uma visualização para fazê-la funcionar em uma dada página, a reprodução do estilo de uma visualização e sua aplicação em outro grafo, e a criação integral de duas novas visualizações. Para obter feedback sobre GraphCoiffure, conduzimos uma avaliação informal através de entrevistas com três potenciais usuários, que disseram achar que GraphCoiffure beneficiaria seu trabalho. / Graph visualizations for communication appear in a variety of contexts that range from scientific/ academic to journalistic and even artistic. Unlike graph visualizations for exploration and analysis, these images are used to tell a story that is already known rather than to look for a story within the data. Although graph drawing and diagram editing software can be used to produce them, visualizations made this way do not always meet the visual requirements imposed by their context of use. Graphics authoring software can be used to make the necessary improvements, but not all modifications are possible and the process of editing these images may be very time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this work, we present an investigation of static node-link visualizations for communication and how to better support their creation. We began with a deconstruction of these images, breaking them down into their basic elements and analyzing how they are created. From this, we derived a set of requirements that tools aimed at supporting their creation should meet. To verify if taking all of this into account would improve the workflow and bring more flexibility and power to the users, we created our own prototype, which we named GraphCoiffure. With a special emphasis on helping users on creating visualizations for publication, GraphCoiffure was designed as a standalone application that would serve as an intermediary step between graph drawing and editing software and graphics editors. It combines interactive graph layout manipulation tools with CSS-like styling possibilities to let users create and edit static node-link visualizations for communication. We illustrate the use of GraphCoiffure with four use-case scenarios: the adaptation of a visualization’s layout to make it work on a given page, the reproduction of a visualization’s style and its application on another graph, and the creation of two visualizations from scratch. To obtain feedback on GraphCoiffure, we conducted an informal evaluation by interviewing three potential expert users, who found that it could be useful for their work.

Estudo da visualização da informação em telejornalismo, através da pesquisa da base teórica da visualização da informação, e da análise dos infográficos veiculados em vídeo no telejornalismo brasileiro, que fazem parte dos motion graphics. A pesquisa aborda diferentes visões da visualização da informação, o processo de produção dos infográficos, e uma categorização dos infográficos em telejornalismo brasileiro, que se constituem como um passo para a exploração mais profunda deste campo de atuação do designer. Além disso, as entrevistas realizadas com designers da TV Globo são um ponto forte no posicionamento do designer neste campo de trabalho e sua atuação. Acompanha um anexo digital com exemplos das partes contituintes de um telejornal e a classificação proposta. / Study of Information Visualization in the news television, through research on the Visualization Information theoretical basis and the analisys of infographics broadcasted in the brazilian news television, a part of the motion graphics. The research approaches different points of view on the Visualization Information, the infographics production proccess and a classification of them, constituing as a step forward in the deep exploration of this field of work for designers. Moreover the interviews with TV Globo designers and art editors are a mark in the designers position in this field. A digital attachment accompanies this dissertation with examples of the news television parts and the proposed classification