Why should PR professionals embrace infographics?
Dai, Siting (Lychee) (author) · University of Southern California Digital Library · 2014
Have you seen a myriad of numbers, charts, illustrations and texts all framed in a long narrow graphic? Those graphics are called infographics. They have been incorporated into news reports, sales presentation, annual reports and press releases. ? What exactly are infographics? How did they become so popular? What does this new form of communication mean to journalists and marketing professionals? More importantly, how should PR practitioners react to this trend of data visualization? The author was intrigued by those questions and therefore conducted this study in a hope to explore the answers. ? The thesis first reviewed the history of data visualization and the development of infographics. Afterwards a definition of infographics was given to clarify the subject to be discussed. Then the author argued the reasons why the human brain craves for visuals and thus proposed that infographics is an effective way to present a large amount of information, data and knowledge. Last, the author examined how the popularity of infographics brought both challenges and opportunities for organizations, journalists, marketing professionals and PR practitioners. ? The primary research of this study consisted of two parts. The first part was content analysis. The author analyzed more than 200 infographics on Visual.ly and Pinterest and selected a few as examples to illustrate the different types of infographics and the best practices of infographic design. The second part was one?on?one interviews with infographic industry experts. The interviewees were founders, CEOs and designers from the top infographic companies nominated by Visual.ly in 2013, including the top three: Column Five Media, JESS3 and Lemon.ly. ? The author aimed to provide an overview of the trend, from infographics' distant past to its latest evolution. Moreover, based on the content analysis and the interviews with the industry experts, it is the author's attempt to illustrate the best practices of infographic designs and portray a vision for infographics' advance in the future as a new communication format and marketing tool.