The Numbers Game: How Local Newspapers Used Statistics and Data Visualizations to Cover the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract Data and visualizations are an important part of local health news. Systematic data sourced from credible sources provide context to stories and educate audiences. Data visualizations help simplify complex statistical information and increase audience interactivity. Journalists associate statistics with objectivity, and use them to quantify risk in crisis situations. This study explores how local news used data to cover the coronavirus pandemic. We examined 170 data-driven articles published in the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle to examine the predominant data sources, data-driven narratives, and use of interactive elements. Results indicate reliance on government sources, prevalence of hard news stories, localization of statistics, contextual presentation of data, and abundant use of visualizations. However, the coverage lacked human-interest stories, interactivity in infographics, and failed to adequately reflect the diversity of the communities covered by the two newspapers. Data-driven stories did not always provide access to the underlying databases; nor did they always explain the methodology used to gather and analyze the data. While the readable format of the articles and the updates on infection rates can inform audiences, we argue that coverage that ignores broader data trends can cause readers to feel negative, which can push them toward news avoidance.