The Stories We Tell About Data: Surveying Data-Driven Storytelling Using Visualization

The emerging practice of data-driven storytelling is framing data using familiar narrative mechanisms, such as slideshows, videos, and comics, to make even highly complex phenomena understandable. In this survey, we propose a taxonomy focused specifically on media types for the purpose of widening the purview of data-driven storytelling by putting more tools into the hands of designers. The classification shows that current data-driven storytelling practice does not yet leverage the full repertoire of media that can be used for storytelling, such as the spoken word, e-learning, and video games. Using our taxonomy as a generative tool, we also explore three novel storytelling mechanisms, including for live streaming, gesture-driven oral presentations, and data-driven comics.