Q-Factor General Quiz-7th April 2024, Quiz Club NITW
Teaching the Infographic Assignment (Slides from the AEJMC 2013 Conference)
1. The Infographics Assignment
Tiffany Gallicano
University of Oregon
@gallicano
Gee Ekachai
Marquette University
@FvrythingPR
Karen Freberg
University of Louisville
@kfreberg
A Qualitative Study of Students’
and Professionals’ Perspectives
2. “We have become a profession that is brilliant
with the written word, but we must become a
profession that knows how to show as equally as
we tell. There is a huge place for deeper, more
informative visuals… which infographics…
provide.”
— Richard Edelman, 2012.
9. Research questions
1. What are
regard to infographics?
with
2. What is the
from
the perspectives of PR students and professionals?
3. What can be learned about
from PR students and professionals?
10. Method
15 interviews with
public relations professionals
• 4 from agencies
(boutique and global)
• 3 from nonprofits
(small and large)
• 3 from companies
(local and global)
• 3 consultants
• 2 from government agencies
(city and federal)
12. RQ 1: Professionals’ experiences
• Use of donations to a nonprofit
• Health and food access
disparities
• Employee communication
• Annual reports
• Prospecting tool for new business
13. RQ 2: Value of the assignment
• Writing skills
• Research skills
• Visual storytelling skills
• Portfolio and job opportunities
14. RQ 3: Teaching tips – good infographics
• Prune the data to create a narrative arc
• Use visuals that convey
the story
• Apply visual design
principles
• Use footnotes
• End with a call to action
15. RQ 3: Teaching tips – software
• PowerPoint and Piktochart are sufficient
• InDesign is good with prior experience
16. RQ 3: Teaching tips
• Show the different types of infographics
• Discuss professionals’ use of them
• Review design principles
• Critique good and bad examples with the class
• Require a strategic brief
17. RQ 3: Teaching tips
• Check students’ content in advance
• Encourage peer feedback
• Create a work day after initial drafts to allow
for continued feedback
18.
19.
20. Our infographic is
available on #prprofs.
Find our paper on the
AEJMC website.
An infographic strategy
brief is on SlideShare.
Email Addresses
derville@uoregon.edu
daradirek.ekachai@marquette.edu
karen.freberg@louisville.edu
Certain images on this page are the copyrighted property of 123RF
Limited, their contributors or licensed partners and are being used
with permission under license.
Here is an excerpt of Richard Edelman’s opening remarks to public relations educators at the Edelman Academic Summit last summer [let people read slide]In this “era of big data,” Edelman stressed the importance of training students to work with data and make information meaningful in a visual way (p. 4). In addition to professional encouragement for this assignment, ACEJMC standards call for students to learn how to engage in visual communication and learn how to work with data. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to document perceived learning outcomes that can result from the infographics assignment, as well as best practices for teaching it. Our intention is that our study provides public relations educators with the information needed to decide whether to incorporate the assignment into a class, such as a research class or writing lab.
We define infographics as… (read slide).There are four types of infographics.
A typical infographic has a headline and various data, such as this one that Dr. Tina McCorkindale used at an IPRRC conference.
A typical infographic has a headline and various data, such as this one that Dr. Tina McCorkindale used at an IPRRC conference.
A singular infographic consists of one large graphic.
A comparison infographic compares items.
Finally, aprocess flow infographic illustrates a process.
You can see our three research questions here [pause].
(Gee) We interviewed a variety of public relations professionals, some of whom gave us permission to use their names. [don’t read slide]
And we conducted 5 focus groups with a total of 37 students from our universities.
Here are some examples of how PR professionals are using infographics or are planning to use them [don’t read slide].There was a consensus that infographics will always be a part of the public relations toolkit; however, a few thought leaders such as Jason Falls added that they have peaked in popularity, although clients continue to ask for them.
Writing: Brevity, ability to choose the most important facts for your audience.Research: Use of original sources, finding the right data. Exception: Students who chose topics that required minimal research, such as a guide to choosing Girl Scout cookies, so a consideration is to build in guidelines to ensure that topics meet a certain level of rigor. Visual storytelling: Ability to tell a story visually and apply visual design principlesJobs: The writing skills have to be there, but if two candidates are equal, the infographic could make a difference.
(Karen)
Piktochart is a template program for infographics and we’ve included a tutorial as an appendix in the paperStudents with prior InDesign experience preferred InDesign and were less proud of their work that was created using Piktochart
Such as the ones we presented earlierWe have several examples you can use from our paper.Such as visually showing the eye where to go, having visual start and stop points, using no more than 2 fonts that are easy to read, using contrast between the font color and background, using emphasis on the numbers through color and size, and being consistent with colors and font sizes.Examples: We have student examples and professionals’ critiques of them we’ll show in a moment.Check the topic and whether you think it lends itself visually to an infographic and check the quality of the data and source citationprior to having students create the infographic
The headline tells me the purpose of the infographic.Flip the first two panels for a more coherent narrative.The 2 min. 2 inches is quick and simple. There aren’t a lot of words; it’s easy to digest. There is a good visual story.You can tell what the text is about just by seeing the visuals. There are clear start and stop points. Your eye knows where to go.
There are clear start and stop pointsThe closing line could be shorter and the call to action could be clearer, such as “to learn where to take lessons in your area: with the URL.”