Abstract
News visualization is a hybrid form of journalism that consists of data visualization, infographics, user interactions, and multimedia presentations. It is widely used to convey complex information to the general public, creating an important form of journalistic communication.
Previous studies have focused on the collaboration between news visualization professionals with backgrounds in news or visualization fields. These studies reveal the conflicts that sometimes arise from professionals' different goals, interests, and values when they make production decisions. In order to achieve news reporting tasks successfully, professionals need to find ways to resolve these conflicts and reach a consensus. It's thus crucial to understand a less-studied phenomenon in news visualization production, i.e., how professionals understand news visualization reporting tasks, negotiate solutions, and make collaborative decisions.
This study aims to investigate the shared mindsets a team of professionals relies on to make collaborative production decisions, i.e., the shared mental model guiding professionals' news visualization production. A shared mental model is the shared cognitive structure held by all individual members of a team that helps them make sense of their tasks.
Study findings will reveal the structure of the shared mental model in the news visualization team and elucidate how it guides news visualization professionals to reach consensus in daily collaborative practices. This study will contribute to the research of news visualization production. Furthermore, it may inform professional practices, tool development, and the design of professional training programs in news visualization and data journalism.