Information graphics as a modern Russian newspaper reporters tool

Modern social and economic realities, technical obsolescence, struggle competition with Internetand television are forming new purposes for modern newspapers. Therefore, the printed media have toseek for and apply new methods of gathering and displaying information. Visual journalism and informationgraphics provide new journalistic forms, which Russian newspapers are looking for.Information graphics or infographics obtain federal media recognition. Many modern newspapersand magazines contain infographics, for instance, newspapers Trud-7, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Kommersant,Vedomosti, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestiya and magazines Sekret Firmy, Russkiy Reporter,Kommersant. Vlast, Dengi, Populyarnaya Mechanica, Expert ets. Regional newspapers also try visualpresentations on theirs pages. For example, Moi Raion (Moscow), Delovoi Peterburg (Saint-Petersburg), Svobodnii Kurs (Barnaul), Gorodskaya Gazeta (Tomsk).Russian professors of journalism theory and design, such as V. Tulupov and S. Galkin, mentionedinfographics in their works as a kind of illustration. European and American researches contributemuch to visual communications study. Edward Tufte, Alberto Cairo, Nigel Holmes, Javier Erreapointed that infographics combines journalism and illustration tools. Modern infographics displaynews by using design, illustration and cartography methods to cover current events and breaking newsinformation alongside with traditional text.Russian editors and reporters traditionally view infographics as visual representation of information,which is expected to realistically record, using visuals, what has been explained in the accompanyingtext. They use infographics in their practice in the way of showing quantitative information, datasets or event reconstruction.Information graphics is one of the reporters' tools in their professional arsenal because it has thesame properties and characteristics as every journalism creation does. For instance, it has the presentationtheme, the subject, main ideas, data sets, genre and concept.Nasha Vologda is a Russian regional newspaper that demonstrated one of the most significantvisual journalism experiences in 2006-2008. Vologda's weekly newspaper won several prizes at TheBest of Newspaper Design Russia competition and received professional recognition. By analysingNasha Vologda's infographics we can distinguish the main genre spectrum of regional visual presentations.Modern Russian regional newspapers use infographics to display highly significant social news,such as car accidents, emergency situations or other breaking news. They use diagrams, pie charts, barcharts, tables, timelines and reconstructions. Thus, infographics helps audience to understand dataflows and current events in a swifter and smarter way, gives them an easier access to the information.That is why Nasha Vologda newspaper gave graphic form to its content.

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