2 / Chinese propaganda, Ukraine mapping and SND's visual journalism awards

Harnessing the power of design to connect readers with people and stories.

Apr 3, 2022

Dear reader,

It’s been a chaotic month. As pandemic regulations finally began to loosen and our lives might resume normality, the world had to deal with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

There has been some exceptional visual reporting on the conflict, take this example from Bloomberg. We’ve also witnessed a new era of war, with the world watching events in real-time on social media and citizen journalists working around the clock to map the war using open-source platforms.

Investigative Spotlight

In 2021 The New York Times released a brilliant visual piece on the dissemination of propaganda videos by the Chinese Communist Party, the scripted similarities and their journey from local outlets to Chinese social media before finally surfacing on global platforms.

The New York Times @nytimes

Exclusive: The videos look like unfiltered glimpses into Uyghur life. But an analysis of more than 3,000 clips suggests they’re really covert Chinese propaganda.

nyti.ms‘We Are Very Free’: How China Spreads Its Propaganda Version of Life in XinjiangThousands of videos posted look like unfiltered glimpses of life for Uyghurs, but taken together, the videos begin to reveal clues of a broader influence campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government.

Visuals Spotlight

Last week the Society for News Design announced their winners : The New York Times won the Best Digital News Design award and Marco Hernandez took home the Best Designer prize.

Check out Marco’s work on the Amazon Jungle Lab
The New York Times’ coverage of the Olympics reads like a film. With frame by frame 3D animations of athletes breaking down the complexity of various techniques.

Under-reported News

The IPCC released the second half of its landmark climate report a few weeks ago, what would have been mainstream news for days has been left to the sidelines. The Reuters TRUST Foundation has dedicated a lot of reporting to the topic, have a look!

A flagship report by 270 leading climate scientists warns loss and damage is already happening and is set to grow much worse.

Handpicked Obsessions

Amelia Wattenberger’s upcoming SVG tool

Amelia Wattenberger 🪷 華曼如 @Wattenberger

finally got to play around with my SVG tool tonight! I added a color palette selector to re-color the SVG with any of the nice-color-palettes palettes. 😍 really fun to play around with! a fun bit: it isn't completely random, but keeps shapes with the same color consistent

The Pudding’s 2021 Awards Cup
This XR experience on overfishing, by Resn and GreenPeace.

Our updates

I’m currently working on two really exciting projects: interactive documentaries about Kashmir and Yemen. Updates here next month!

Check out this Twitter thread synthesising the Reuters Institute’s predictions for journalism in 2022. I’m currently working on consolidating academic research insights on cinematic visualisations, stay tuned.

Yours,

Tom

Nuanced Narratives