A summary of the research we have carried out in the Data Stories project, http://datastories.co.uk/

1. THE STORY OF DATA STORIES
ENGAGING WITH DATA IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD
Elena Simperl
@esimperl
Data Stories Symposium
November 26, 2020

2. “One of the interpretations of the EU referendum result and
the rise of Donald Trump in the US is that we are now living in
a post-truth society - a world in which anecdotes shared on
social media and invented numbers thrown on the sides of
buses are more trusted and influential than official statistics,
extensive research, and proven expertise. In this world,
scientists, statisticians, analysts, and journalists must find new
ways to bring hard, factual data to citizens.”
“Data must entertain as well as inform, excite as well as
educate. It must be built with social media sharing in mind,
and become part of our everyday activities and digital
interactions with others.”

3. DATA STORIES
Data Stories developed frameworks
and technology to bring data closer
to people through art, games, and
storytelling.
We examined the impact of varying
levels of localisation, topicalization,
participation, and shareability on
public engagement with factual
evidence.
We delivered tools and guidance to
help artists, designers, statisticians,
analysts, and journalists communicate
through data in inspiring, informative
ways.

4. Theme 1: Find, make sense, use data

5. HIGHLIGHTS
Kathleen Gregory, The story behind the story:
How researchers make sense of data (DANS)

6. Theme 2: Entertain and inform with data

7. STORYTELLING THROUGH GAMES AND ART
Smoking gun: A collaborative data game experience by Dan
Barnard and Joe McAlister from Fast Familiar
Tom Blount, Supporting Data Story Authoring with Semi-Automated
Tools (University of Southampton)

8. VIRAL DATA
Neural network system that
classifies charts in tweets and
predicts their influence
 Visualisations
 Subject matter/topic
 “Transmission vectors”: journalists,
celebrities, grassroots, botnets

11. PUBLICATIONS
Talking Datasets — understanding data sensemaking behaviours. L Koesten, K
Gregory, P Groth, E Simperl. Currently under review at the International Journal
of Human-Computer Studies. 2020
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about a Dataset: Studies in Data
Summarisation. L Koesten, E Simperl, E Kacprzak, T Blount, J Tennison.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 2019
Collaborative Practices with Structured Data: Do Tools Support what Users Need?
L Koesten, E Kacprzak, E Simperl, J Tennison; ACM CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019.
Dataset search: a survey. A Chapman, E Simperl, L Koesten, G Konstantinidis,
LD Ibáñez, E Kacprzak, P Groth. The International Journal on Very Large Data
Bases, 2019.
Characterising dataset search — An analysis of search logs and data requests. E
Kacprzak, L Koesten, LD Ibáñez, T Blount, J Tennison, E Simperl; Journal of Web
Semantics, 2018
The Trials and Tribulations of Working with Structured Data - a Study on
Information Seeking Behaviour. L Koesten, E Kacprzak, J Tennison, E Simperl.
Proceedings of ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,
CHI 2017.
Dataset Reuse: Toward Translating Principles to Practice. L Koesten, P Vougiouklis,
E Simperl, P Groth - Patterns, 2020
Pie Chart or Pizza: Identifying Chart Types and Their Virality on Twitter - P
Vougiouklis, L Carr, E Simperl - Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference
on Web and Social Media, 2020