An Image Worth 1000 Words: Data Visualization in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Juliana C Green BSAD

Advisor: Ben Fry

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the US in early 2020, radically redefining the daily patterns of millions of people. This project investigates the impact of the pandemic on data graphics usage in reporting and its implications for data literacy. The survey comprises 226 data graphics appearing on the front page of The New York Times from 2019 through 2022. Graphics were collected, categorized along a number of metrics, and visualized along with pandemic caseload and death data from The New York Times. Analysis reveals that these graphics tended to be centrally located above the fold, brightly colored, and took on one of three graphical architectures––time series, bar graph, or map. Perhaps most notably, the average number of front page information graphics per month more than tripled (from 1.6 to 5.2) in the 4 years from 2019 to the end of 2022. However, the average size of graphics followed no consistent trend. Separately, the increase in data graphics coincides with a decrease in test scores indicative of data literacy rates among school children, in a context where data literacy was already poor across age groups. These results bring up concerns regarding critical reader engagement with news graphics.