Strategic Temporality: Information Types and Their Rhetorical Usage in Digital Election Visualizations

Authors

  • Eedan R. Amit-Danhi Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Keywords:

political information, information-rhetoric, election campaign, visualizations, temporality, social media

Abstract

Ideally, the prevalence of political data/information visualizations on social media would enrich political discourse with quality information. However, when examining the rhetorical role of information in visualizations, one must first typify information. A review of existing data/information typologies finds them incomprehensive; they omit visual and data-less information and disregard the temporal liminality of election periods. I thus rely on qualitative content analysis of 252 visualizations from the 2016 U.S. election to define the attributes of contemporary political information and explore its role in visualization rhetoric. I amend and amalgamate existing literature to create a typology of political information, which then I use to categorize the sample into two rhetorical modes (Unveiling hidden past/present realities, and Imagining possible futures) to create a second typology of visualized information-rhetoric. Overall, my findings reveal that candidates use temporality strategically to persuade while appearing to inform, as the facts of the election future are still pending.

Author Biography

Eedan R. Amit-Danhi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Eedan R. Amit-Danhi is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Communication and Journalism, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main research interests are digital political visualizations, political projections and digital election campaigns.

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Published

2022-06-29

Issue

Vol. 16 (2022)

Section

Articles

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