²Creative Advertising Program, Visual Communication Design Department, School of Design, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Abstract. Nowadays, the stream of information to promote environmental consciousness are profoundly dominated by the existence of infographics and data visualization. Beside visually attractive, it is crucial for them to deliver a clear and concise information. This research will uncover infographics and data visualization in conjunction with news about the fire in Australia continent, early in 2020. Some of these visualizations were potentially giving a misleading interpretation to its reader. This research aims to explore the effectiveness of infographics and data visualization channel from the perspective of visual communication design discipline; both from its aesthetics dimension and its content data accuracy. As the outcome, this research is expected to be a reminder that the amount of information in the world is limitless. It is our shared responsibility to be mindful towards each and every material that we consume and share with others.

Keywords: infographics, data visualization, Australia

1. Introduction

1.1 Australia bushfire

Global ecosystem and environmental problem have been more and more becoming sources of concerns lately. Starting from the issue of global warming, climate change, waste management problem, floods and other natural disasters. It is recorded in the radar, that starting in 2019 to early 2020 there has been a series of bushfires that eventually transformed into some persistent forest fires in the Australia continent. So great the enormity of the fire at some point a pair of gigantic blazes in southeastern part of the continent has fused into single “megafire” with the size triple as large as any documented fire in California. In late January 2020, it was registered that these fires have claimed the lives of more than 30 citizens, approximately one billion faunas, destroyed up to 3,000 properties and land with the coverage grander than New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined [1][2].

Crystal Kolden, an expert in fire science at the University of Idaho, whose research focuses on distinguishing and understanding wildfire, explained that while some biotas are prone to fires and will come back; but Australia possesses some really incredible remnants of flora, populated by species fundamentally since the dinosaurs period, which unfortunately are not tailored for fire; and once they burn, they will be vanished [3]. The world closely followed the progress of the fire through journalism articles that reported the on-ground situation in real time; both in printed and online media. On February 13^th, after some torrential rains, New South Wales as the most affected state, were finally

contained the fire. And on March 2, after some 240 days, the Rural Fire Service of New South Wales affirmed that the fire is finally ended.

Journalism evolves in unison with the changing of time. Whereas in the past communication were dominated by texts in paragraph with pictures as its complement; nowadays we are faced with another type of communication: infographic and data visualization [4]. This trend is also applied to articles related to the fire in Australia – many of which using graphic visualizations as tools to deliver the information.

2. Methodology

This research used qualitative method consists of case study, online interview and questionnaire, and data collection from journals and articles. This research will highlight the use of infographic and/or data visualization, specifically in the case of journalism for the recent Australia fire 2020. It will thoroughly discuss visualization of Australia fire from the artist Anthony Hearsey which became viral in early 2020. It will explore the effectiveness of these tools from the standpoint of visual communication design discipline; both from its aesthetics aspect as well as its data reliability. To do that, firstly we will examine the use of infographic and data visualization, starting with its general history followed by a close examination of Hearsey’s visualization. Next it will discuss the role of internet and social media in spreading public information, including the role of influencers and the danger of fake news. In the end it will maintain that infographic and data visualization are one of the best agents to communicate and sharing information, but it needs to be treated with proper cautions.

3. Infographic and data visualization

Using pictures as a tool for communication is not a new phenomenon. On the contrary, it has been suggested that as early as 73,000 years ago, people have communicated their ideas by drawing pictures on rocks and caves [5]. These prehistoric evidences have been found all over the world, from South Africa, Altamira in Spain, Bhimbetka in India, Lascaux in France, Indonesian island of Sulawesi and Borneo, and many more. Time leaping to our current times, we live in a world surrounded by visual representation of information: maps, signs, diagrams and charts, icons, and other online visuals – all of which examples of visual communication. However, they are not all infographics [6]. Formally, infographic is defined as “a visualization of data or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in a manner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood” [7].

While for most people infographics are thought to be synonymous to data visualization, but for infographic designer, these two terms have different significances; since the later term are restricted to visual representation of numerical values [6]. According to Krum, infographics has been evolved to be “a larger graphic design that combines data visualizations, illustrations, text, and images together into a format that tells a complete story.” Therefore, he added, a good infographic design is more about storytelling, instead of mere attractive data visualization [6]. In a study in 2016 with more specific scope on infographics in the form of smartphone screen-shaped internet posters, infographics are claimed to have the potential to rapidly deliver detailed information in a visually stimulating approach, which effectively inspire its reader to grasp complicated informational texts [8]. Therefore, it is not surprising that many articles reporting the Australia fire were using infographics as its supplement.

3.1. The use of infographic and/or data visualization to report the fire problem in Australia

Amongst many infographics accompanied articles and reports on Australia fire in mass media, there is one visualization that powerfully stand out (here we opt to use the general term ‘visualization’ because of the convoluted nature of this particular image that is being discussed). This visualization seemingly opened the eyes for many of its reader on how dire the situation was in the Australia continent, back then when the fires were still on-going. Once it was published, this visualization became an instant viral on social media, notably for its ability to capture and deliver a single message, arguably in less than a second. The visualization depicts the map of Australia continent dominated with black and red/vermillion colors all over its regions