Infography in the Spanish printed press: Definition and typology of use

Abstract

The media offer content supported by graphic elements either to accompany the text as a decorative element, or to make it more understandable and/or to contextualize the information. This work proposes an updated definition of the journalistic infographic and establishes a typology according to its use, with the aim of clarifying as best as possible what graphic expressions can be considered journalistic infographics and when the infographic should be used to communicate the information. To corroborate and support the resulting definition and typology, there is a case study of the infographics published in the main newspapers of the Spanish general printed press: El País, 20 Minutos and El Mundo. All the cases analyzed meet each of the characteristics set forth in the definition. In addition, each infographic has been ordered in the classification confirming that the Spanish media use infographics mainly to compare and locate data.