Location
Hilton Waikoloa Village, Hawaii
Event Website
https://hicss.hawaii.edu/
Start Date
7-1-2025 12:00 AM
End Date
10-1-2025 12:00 AM
Description
Users in the data age have access to more data than ever before, but little is known how they interact with it. Using transparency and multimedia, data journalism (DJ) lets users explore and interpret data on their own. This study examines how DJ affects online comments as a case study of user interactions with data. The corpus comprises 6,400 stories and their comment sections from the DJ and other sections of the New York Times, from 2014-2022. Results indicate that DJ is positively associated with higher level of interactivity between the users. This relationship is mediated by statistical information, information sources, and static visualizations. However, there is a low level of interactivity with the content; consequently, only part of the users use it. The results demonstrate how data accessibility through DJ engages the users in conversation. According to deliberation theory, this creates a conducive environment for democratic processes.
Recommended Citation
Kantor, Avner and Rafaeli, Sheizaf, "Conversations with Data: How Data Journalism Affects Online Comments in the New York Times" (2025). Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2025 (HICSS-58). 15.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-58/dsm/conversation/15
Conversations with Data: How Data Journalism Affects Online Comments in the New York Times
Hilton Waikoloa Village, Hawaii
Users in the data age have access to more data than ever before, but little is known how they interact with it. Using transparency and multimedia, data journalism (DJ) lets users explore and interpret data on their own. This study examines how DJ affects online comments as a case study of user interactions with data. The corpus comprises 6,400 stories and their comment sections from the DJ and other sections of the New York Times, from 2014-2022. Results indicate that DJ is positively associated with higher level of interactivity between the users. This relationship is mediated by statistical information, information sources, and static visualizations. However, there is a low level of interactivity with the content; consequently, only part of the users use it. The results demonstrate how data accessibility through DJ engages the users in conversation. According to deliberation theory, this creates a conducive environment for democratic processes.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-58/dsm/conversation/15