Misinformation has disruptive effects on our lives. Many researchers have looked into means to identify and combat misinformation in text or data visualization. However, there is still a lack of understanding of how misinformation can be introduced when text and visualization are combined to tell data stories, not to mention how to improve the lay public's awareness of possible misperceptions about facts in narrative visualization. In this paper, we first analyze where misinformation could possibly be injected into the production-consumption process of data stories through a literature survey. Then, as a first step towards combating misinformation in data stories, we explore possible defensive design methods to enhance the reader's awareness of information misalignment when data facts are scripted and visualized. More specifically, we conduct a between-subjects crowdsourcing study to investigate the impact of two design methods enhancing text-visualization integration, i.e., explanatory annotation and interactive linking, on users' awareness of misinformation in data stories. The study results show that although most participants still can not find misinformation, the two design methods can significantly lower the perceived credibility of the text or visualizations. Our work informs the possibility of fighting an infodemic through defensive design methods.
翻译:错误信息对我们的生活产生了破坏性影响。 许多研究人员研究了如何识别和打击文字或数据可视化中的错误信息,然而,在将文字和可视化合并来讲述数据故事时,对于如何引入错误信息仍缺乏了解,更不用说如何提高普通大众对描述性可视化中可能存在的对事实的误解的认识了。在本文中,我们首先分析在哪些方面错误信息可以通过文献调查被注入数据故事的制作-消费过程。随后,作为打击数据故事中错误信息的第一步,我们探索了可能的防御性设计方法,以提高读者对数据事实被编造和可视化时信息不匹配的认识。更具体地说,我们开展了一个主题间众包研究,以调查加强文字可视化整合两种设计方法的影响,即解释性说明和互动联系,了解用户对数据故事中错误信息的认识。研究结果表明,虽然大多数参与者仍然无法找到错误信息,但两种设计方法可以大大降低对文本或可视化的可信度。我们的工作表明,通过防御性设计方法来打击错误行为的可能性。