Scribbles – Data Rhetoric

Not in the sense of “rhetoric around the utility, or otherwise, of data, open data” etc, which refers to argumentation in favour of releasing open data, for example.

Nor strictly in the sense of how data can be used as part of a communication to support the persuasive aims of that communication.

But more in the sense of: how can data itself be used in a rhetorical way to persuade?

For example, taking the list of rhetorical devices from this glossary of rhetorical terms, what data rhetoric, or data visualisation rhetoric, examples might we give for each of them, or what corollaries might they have in a specifically “communicating with data” context?

Wider Context

Baesler, E. James, and Judee K. Burgoon. “The temporal effects of story and statistical evidence on belief change.” Communication Research 21.5 (1994): 582-602.

Cushion, Stephen, Justin Lewis, and Robert Callaghan. “Data Journalism, Impartiality and Statistical Claims: Towards more independent scrutiny in news reporting.” Journalism Practice (2016): 1-18.

Han, Bing, and Edward L. Fink. “How do statistical and narrative evidence affect persuasion?: The role of evidentiary features.” Argumentation and Advocacy 49.1 (2012): 39-58.

Pandey, Anshul Vikram, et al. “The persuasive power of data visualization.” IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics 20.12 (2014): 2211-2220.