The Public Life of Data: Investigating Reactions to Visualizations on Reddit

Tobias Kauer; Arran  Ridley; Marian Dörk; Benjamin Bach

doi:10.1145/3411764.3445720

The Public Life of Data: Investigating Reactions to Visualizations on Reddit

Tobias Kauer, Arran Ridley, Marian Dörk, Benjamin Bach

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

This research investigates how people engage with data visualizations when commenting on the social platform Reddit. There has been considerable research on collaborative sensemaking with visualizations and the personal relation of people with data. Yet, little is known about how public audiences without specific expertise and shared incentives openly express their thoughts, feelings, and in-sights in response to data visualizations. Motivated by the extensive social exchange around visualizations in online communities, this research examines characteristics and motivations of people’s reactions to posts featuring visualizations. Following a Grounded Theory approach, we study 475 reactions from the /r/dataisbeautiful community, identify ten distinguishable reaction types, and consider their contribution to the discourse. A follow-up survey with 168 Reddit users clarified their intentions to react. Our results help understand the role of personal perspectives on data and inform future interfaces that integrate audience reactions into visualizations to foster a public discourse about data.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21)
Publisher	ACM Association for Computing Machinery
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450380966
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445720
Publication status	Published - 6 May 2021
Event	The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021 - Virtual Conference, Japan Duration: 8 May 2021 → 13 May 2021 https://chi2021.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021
Abbreviated title	CHI 2021
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Virtual Conference
Period	8/05/21 → 13/05/21
Internet address	https://chi2021.acm.org/

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

data visualization
reddit
personal data

Access to Document

10.1145/3411764.3445720Licence: All Rights Reserved

The_Public_Life_of_Data__Shepherd_Accepted author manuscript, 1.48 MBLicence: All Rights Reserved

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445720Licence: All Rights Reserved

Cite this

@inproceedings{45f1068044a7432c9399f9f8f37cdd3d,

title = "The Public Life of Data: Investigating Reactions to Visualizations on Reddit",

abstract = "This research investigates how people engage with data visualizations when commenting on the social platform Reddit. There has been considerable research on collaborative sensemaking with visualizations and the personal relation of people with data. Yet, little is known about how public audiences without specific expertise and shared incentives openly express their thoughts, feelings, and in-sights in response to data visualizations. Motivated by the extensive social exchange around visualizations in online communities, this research examines characteristics and motivations of people{\textquoteright}s reactions to posts featuring visualizations. Following a Grounded Theory approach, we study 475 reactions from the /r/dataisbeautiful community, identify ten distinguishable reaction types, and consider their contribution to the discourse. A follow-up survey with 168 Reddit users clarified their intentions to react. Our results help understand the role of personal perspectives on data and inform future interfaces that integrate audience reactions into visualizations to foster a public discourse about data.",

keywords = "data visualization, reddit, personal data",

author = "Tobias Kauer and Arran Ridley and Marian D{\"o}rk and Benjamin Bach",

year = "2021",

month = may,

day = "6",

doi = "10.1145/3411764.3445720",

language = "English",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21)",

publisher = "ACM Association for Computing Machinery",

note = "The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021, CHI 2021 ; Conference date: 08-05-2021 Through 13-05-2021",

url = "https://chi2021.acm.org/",

}

Kauer, T, Ridley, A, Dörk, M & Bach, B 2021, The Public Life of Data: Investigating Reactions to Visualizations on Reddit. in Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21)., 612, ACM Association for Computing Machinery, The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021, Virtual Conference, Japan, 8/05/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445720

TY - GEN

T1 - The Public Life of Data: Investigating Reactions to Visualizations on Reddit

AU - Kauer, Tobias

AU - Ridley, Arran

AU - Dörk, Marian

AU - Bach, Benjamin

PY - 2021/5/6

Y1 - 2021/5/6

N2 - This research investigates how people engage with data visualizations when commenting on the social platform Reddit. There has been considerable research on collaborative sensemaking with visualizations and the personal relation of people with data. Yet, little is known about how public audiences without specific expertise and shared incentives openly express their thoughts, feelings, and in-sights in response to data visualizations. Motivated by the extensive social exchange around visualizations in online communities, this research examines characteristics and motivations of people’s reactions to posts featuring visualizations. Following a Grounded Theory approach, we study 475 reactions from the /r/dataisbeautiful community, identify ten distinguishable reaction types, and consider their contribution to the discourse. A follow-up survey with 168 Reddit users clarified their intentions to react. Our results help understand the role of personal perspectives on data and inform future interfaces that integrate audience reactions into visualizations to foster a public discourse about data.

AB - This research investigates how people engage with data visualizations when commenting on the social platform Reddit. There has been considerable research on collaborative sensemaking with visualizations and the personal relation of people with data. Yet, little is known about how public audiences without specific expertise and shared incentives openly express their thoughts, feelings, and in-sights in response to data visualizations. Motivated by the extensive social exchange around visualizations in online communities, this research examines characteristics and motivations of people’s reactions to posts featuring visualizations. Following a Grounded Theory approach, we study 475 reactions from the /r/dataisbeautiful community, identify ten distinguishable reaction types, and consider their contribution to the discourse. A follow-up survey with 168 Reddit users clarified their intentions to react. Our results help understand the role of personal perspectives on data and inform future interfaces that integrate audience reactions into visualizations to foster a public discourse about data.

KW - data visualization

KW - reddit

KW - personal data

U2 - 10.1145/3411764.3445720

DO - 10.1145/3411764.3445720

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21)

PB - ACM Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021

Y2 - 8 May 2021 through 13 May 2021

ER -

The Public Life of Data: Investigating Reactions to Visualizations on Reddit

Abstract

Conference

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

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Cite this