Date of Award

7-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Art and Design

Department

Art

First Advisor

James Hutson

Second Advisor

Peter Cotroneo

Third Advisor

Adam Smith

Abstract

Since the advent of the World Wide Web, vast interconnected digital networks have increasingly provided access to diverse data sources for Internet users. Towards the turn of the 21st century, social media sites opened opportunities to produce and consume (i.e., prosume) data, empowering users to publish their own content online (Manovich, 2009). The ability to publish user-generated content results in more voices being heard, creating more seats at the proverbial table. However, more recently, persuasive media has increasingly been weaponized to disseminate misinformation and disinformation online (Howard, 2020). Consequently, the agency exercised by Internet and social media users is diminished. What is more, biases embedded in algorithms (Broussard, 2023) and developments in artificial intelligence (AI) such as deep fakes have induced conditions in which many societies teeter on the edge of an Infocalypse (Schick,2020). To combat this, educators have advocated for the importance of digital media literacy, embodied learning, and critical aesthetic experiences (Knochel, 2013, Moeller et al., 2013; Cappello & Walker, 2016, Hubard, 2007, Medina, 2012). Acquiring these skillsets has become an urgent necessity for citizens of a global society to be informed, not mislead. It is imperative that citizens are perceptive, discriminating, and analytical consumers of visual culture to avoid false understandings or misinterpretations of important information used to guide decision-making practices. Thus, developing visual literacy skills is vital to combatting the use of aesthetics aimed to develop more compelling ways to persuade them when interacting with digital content. To study these issues, this thesis involved using art-based research (ABR) and animated data visualization to analyze commonly trusted and distrusted information sources that inform participants' personal beliefs. To assess the findings of the research study, the method of animated data visualization was used to create diverse opportunities for visual analysis.

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