What is the message? Perspectives on Visual Data Communication

Abstract

Data visualizations are widely used to communicate messages about urgent topics such as climate change and public health. However, we still know little about how these visualizations are produced and interpreted in popular science contexts. In this mixed-method study, we examine how data are visually communicated and understood in the popular science magazine Scientific American, focusing on the messages these visualizations convey. To capture this complexity, we analyze data visualizations about climate change and pandemics in Scientific American over the past fifty years from three complementary perspectives: reader, chart, and producer. From the reader's perspective, we articulate takeaway messages and document sensemaking, interpreting visualizations first without and then with textual elements. From the chart perspective, we examine how visual features and text shape interpretation. From the producer's perspective, we draw on interviews with Scientific American staff to understand message planning and compare a sample of their intended messages with those we interpreted. Using takeaway messages as our central analytic lens, we develop a message typology and show that messages vary systematically across dimensions such as granularity, articulation, and inference. A key finding is that text plays a pivotal role: approximately two-thirds of messages change when textual elements are added. While the interviews highlighted the central role of message planning in visualization production, intended and interpreted messages only partially aligned. Our findings underscore the importance of contextual clarity and audience-aware communication, and we derive recommendations for visualization designers and science communicators.