Data-Driven Webdocs: A Genre in Consolidation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n41a2652

Keywords:

Interactive documentary, webdoc, narrative visualization, data visualization, data stories

Abstract

Documentaries and data visualizations have long sought innovative approaches to narrate data-driven stories, striving to balance effective storytelling and insightful data visualization. Despite the growing interest in this intersection, limited research has been published on the convergence of these two domains. This article aims to bridge this gap, offering a preliminary exploration into their points of convergence. Our study centers on data-driven webdocs –a novel form of web documentary that places data visualization at its core while incorporating other multimedia elements to enrich the narrative experience. In this paper, we compile existing research and analyze specific examples to identify the distinctive features of data-driven webdocs. Furthermore, building upon prior studies, we propose that this emerging format be recognized as a new genre for narrating stories through data.

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Author Biographies

  • Andrea López-Lozano, University of Granada

    Ph.D. student in the Social Sciences Department of the University of Granada (Spain). She holds a Bachelor in Journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MSc in Interactive Media and Multimedia Journalism from the University of Granada. She also works developing content and communication strategies in interactive, collaborative, and transmedia projects for different areas: journalism and audiovisual communication, research groups, NGOs, public administration, and private companies.

  • Víctor Herrero-Solana, University of Granada

    Full professor in the Information and Communication Department of the University of Granada. He is the head of the research group Scimago-UGR (SEJ036) and a member of the Unit for Computational Humanities and Social Sciences (U-CHASS). He holds a Bachelor’s in Documentation from the University of Mar del Plata (Argentina), an MSc in Library Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Granada (Spain). He publishes widely in the research areas of information science, data visualization, and scientometrics: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OKIleUEAAAAJ

  • Domingo Sánchez-Mesa Martínez, University of Granada

    Full professor in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of Granada (UGR). He is the director of the Research Project I+D FIC-TRANS, Fiction, Transmedia Creativity and Postruth in Contemporary Media Culture (https://nar-trans.com/) as well as of the European Project (Erasmus+) MIGRIMAGE (https://www. migrimage.eu). He is author or coauthor of about a hundred academic texts, among them two recent books: (2022) Transmedialización y Crowdsourcing (Tirant lo Blanch), coedited with J. Alberich, and (2019) Narrativas transmediales. La metamorfosis del relato en los nuevos medios digitales (Gedisa). He has been a visiting professor at Barnard College (Columbia Univ. 2016) and UMass Amherst (2012) and a guest researcher at CUNY, Colegio de México, or KULeuven. He was the supervisor of the Master in New Interactive Media and Multimedia Journalism (UGR 2015-22) and has supervised 13 PhD theses. He is part of the Scientific Committees of several Journals as Pasavento. Journal of Hispanic Studies; Tecmerín. Journal of Audiovisual Essays and Theory Now.

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Published

01-07-2025

Issue

Section

Miscellaneous of Research articles and essays

How to Cite

López-Lozano, A., Herrero-Solana, V., & Sánchez-Mesa Martínez, D. (2025). Data-Driven Webdocs: A Genre in Consolidation. Doxa Comunicación. Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication Studies and Social Sciences, 41, 117-142. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n41a2652

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