Think Visual- Lisa Carlucci Thomas

Abstract:
Lisa Carlucci Thomas examines the impact of visual forms of argument in representing data. Carlucci gives examples of the popularity of visual form of social media. She then introduces an experiment about visual data representation that supports her argument by showing the popularity of visual data representation. Finally, Carlucci provides some reasons as to why visual data representation is so popular and beneficial to people. She concludes her argument by stating that more businesses should make use of visual data representation such as infographics.
Key Concepts:
The author argues that visual forms of social media are incredibly popular, such as Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram. She argues that these social media websites are particularly popular, because "photographs tell a story and illustrate an experience more profoundly than words alone...an attractive, compelling image offers background, narrative, and conclusion all at a moment's glance, delivering information, efficiency, and satisfaction to the viewer" (321).These methods of social media allow for more people to understand them, than social media or other forms of media that require writing. An image can be seen and comprehended by anyone, while writing is limited by langauge barriers and literacy capability.
Thomas then explains about an experiment that was conducted by David Lee King in 2012, who sought to learn what prompted more interaction on a Facebook page. His post was a meme which was on an e-card, and gained the most likes ever for the specific Facebook page. Kind determined that this occuredd for a multitude of reasons. These included: the image supports the message of the post so more people understand it, it was part of a trend, the image helps connect people to something that the users loved, and the image allowed users to connect with it emotionally.
Thomas analyzed this data by focusing on the importance of an infographic as being aesthetically pleasing and educational. By incorporating data visualization, Thomas aruges that "a graphic representation brings out and blings out data, otherwise known to by dry, direct, and at worst, dull. More importantly, it changes perceptions about that dull data by delivering it in an attractive container" (323). In conclusion, Thomas argues that images are important, because they allow viewers to engage more with data that might otherwise be overlooked. Visual data representation also allows the reader to connect with the image more emotionally than they would have with words or only numbers. 
Further Reading and Resources:
Smiciklas, Mark. The power of infographics: Using pictures to communicate and connect with your audiences. Que Publishing, 2012. This book examines what is an infographic, the science of visualization, and why infographics are useful for business. It also examines how to make an infographic and how to visualize data, along with providing further reading on the topic.
Siricharoen, Waralak V. "Infographics: The New Communication Tools in Digital Age." The International Conference on E-Technologies and Business on the Web (EBW2013). The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communication, 2013. This articles examines the use of infographics in mediums such as newspapers. The author aruges that infographics should be better implemented into newspapers in order to help readers appreciate the argument of a complex story.
Cairo, Alberto. The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. New Riders, 2012. This book examines the importance of information grpahics and visualization to the incorporation of data into newspaper stories and books.
Ziemkiewicz, Caroline, and Robert Kosara. "Embedding information visualization within visual representation." Advances in Information and Intelligent Systems. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2009. 307-326. The authors argue that visualization is in many ways a form of visual representaiton. Specifically, they argue that visualization is a form of visual representation by: dependance on data, mapping, and interactivtyy. 
Lankow, Jason, Josh Ritchie, and Ross Crooks. Infographics: The power of visual storytelling. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. This book gives the history of infographics, along with research that examines why our brains understand infographics better than raw data. The authors then give advice, that it backed by research, into how to make an infographic.
Keywords:
visual
infographics
Citation:
Thomas, Lisa Carlucci. "Think Visual". Journal of Web Librarianshop. 2012. 321-325.