School of Communications professors Barbara Miller and Brooke Barnett published their research on newspaper infographics in the presentation of health risks in Newspaper Research Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1, 52-68 (2010).
The study examined how readers respond to news stories about environmental health risks, specifically ones that used infographics, such as maps and captions relating to the graphic. This study found the inclusion of infographics alone does not increase readers’ understanding of environmental health risks in the news. The use of attractive graphics and text in partnership can be more useful than using either by itself.