EVALUATION OF INFOGRAPHICS DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PANDEMIC IN ‘EL PAÍS DIGITAL’ (2020-2021)

Abstract

Effective risk communication is essential to manage outbreaks; consequently, news and figures about COVID-19 have become a constant need since the beginning of 2020. In this sense, infographics are a powerful tool for transmitting this type of information. This work analyzes the first year of the pandemic through the infographics published by El País Digital to evaluate their use in communicating this health crisis. It is through content analysis that the topics and approaches of the articles, the weight of the infographics with respect to the text, the types and subtypes of infographics used, and their degrees and types of interaction, as well as the evolution of these variables throughout of the research period are studied. The results determine that the content typical of the period analyzed is a data-based thematic article, approached from an analytical / interpretive approach. Infographics and text share protagonism, and line graphs without any type of interactivity are included.