We propose critical interactivity as a concept to study and design the dynamic and transitory aspects of data visualizations. Theoretically, interactivity is often described as the means to support analytical tasks, while in practice, it encompasses the techniques that alter visual representations. These notions are a useful starting point to study the role of interactivity in critical engagements with data visualizations. At the core of critical interactivity is the negotiation of authority and agency: authority as authors provide structure and context, and agency as viewers navigate and interpret the data on their own terms. This raises the critical question: who has the power to control the visualization? Drawing from four case studies in science communication, art history, anthropology, and climate advocacy, we examine how critical interactivity links exploration and narration. We reflect on the effort involved in preparing data, and propose design strategies for implementing critical interactivity in data visualization.

Journalism has become more data-driven and inherently visual in recent years. Photographs, illustrations, infographics, data visualizations, and general images help convey complex topics to a wide audience. The way that visual artifacts influence how readers form an opinion beyond the text is an important issue to research, but there are few works about this topic. In this context, we research the persuasive, emotional and memorable dimensions of data visualizations and illustrations in journalistic storytelling for long-form articles. We conducted a user study and compared the effects which data visualizations and illustrations have on changing attitude towards a presented topic. While visual representations are usually studied along one dimension, in this experimental study, we explore the effects on readers’ attitudes along three: persuasion, emotion, and information retention. By comparing different versions of the same article, we observe how attitudes differ based on the visual stimuli present, and how they are perceived when combined. Results indicate that the narrative using only data visualization elicits a stronger emotional impact than illustration-only visual support, as well as a significant change in the initial attitude about the topic. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature on how visual artifacts may be used to inform and influence public opinion and debate. We present ideas for future work to generalize the results beyond the domain studied, the water crisis.