The COVID-19 pandemic in Russian data journalism

This article examines how data journalists transform raw information from a dataset into a journalistic text, what meanings they form in doing so, and what tools they use to exert an emotional impact on the reader by presenting information based on factual data. In the course of the research we studied seven data materials of Russian mass media: Novaya Gazeta, RBC, and Mediazona. All of them used the same source of information when preparing the materials - the Rosstat-maintained statistics of those who fell ill and died from COVID-19. The texts were published in the period from June 2020 to June 2021. The research method was semiotic analysis of polycode text. Each journalistic text was analyzed according to the following scheme: headline, illustration-photo, infographic, verbal part. This analysis model was developed in accordance with research on how people read texts on the Internet. The analysis of the headline and the verbal part aimed to reveal whether they contain words carrying additional negative information (such as smert ’ [death], umershiy [deceased], COVID-19, etc.); the percentage of such words out of the total number of words in the text was counted. The analysis of photographs was to show what objects are present in them and what these objects symbolize. The analysis of infographics was to display what types of signs journalists used to convey information (icons, symbols, or indices), what colors and for what purpose were used, how the elements were arranged, whether titles to infographics contained words with negative connotations. The author has found that, despite the fact that datasets are based on factual information, they are semiotically organized to influence the reader in a suggestive way. Analyzing the dataset information, journalists form a certain conclusion, which they try to convey to the reader with the help of available tools: infographics, headline, verbal part, selected quotations. Suggestion in the dataset texts is formed with the help of different tools: the use of words with emotional connotations, photos that convey a certain mood, text typography, and infographics. From the same data source, different editors draw different conclusions, which are formed into the main messages of the texts. According to the author of the article, the level of suggestiveness of such a message and its content depend on the policy of the publication. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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