News gaming as a new dimension in news presentation: An applied analysis on the relationship between infographic news and data manipulation

This study examines the effects of data journalism, news games and data manipulation, which have emerged with the rapid evolution of technology, on media and communication. As communication technologies have become an integral part of life, the concept of big data has risen and important problems have emerged. In this context, the study focuses on the importance of the concept of 'open data', which aims to extract meaning from big data and use it for the benefit of society. Open data symbolizes data that everyone can freely access, use, modify and share. What is fundamental for data journalism is that data should be available to everyone in a transparent and democratic manner. One of the main arguments of the study is that data journalism has become an important journalistic practice today and the concept of big data has increased its impact in this field. Data journalism is discussed in detail in the first and second parts of the study. This approach allows audiences to delve deeper into the issues by supporting news stories and through visual narrative. Data journalism raises important questions about news games and data manipulation. Efforts to increase reader engagement and make data attractive through newsgaming carry the risk of manipulation. However, data journalism supports the claim of transparency and objectivity by monitoring news preparation processes with numerical data. This study focuses on important questions by assessing the impact of data journalism on news processes and its potential to ensure objectivity. Critical issues such as the possibilities of manipulation are the focus of the research. This makes the study an important contribution to assessing objectivity claims in the field of data journalism. In this context, descriptive analysis was applied to 85 infographic news within the framework of 4 themes. In the selection of infographics, an independent academic group voting was used. Then, journalists who took part in infographic news design processes were interviewed and their data literacy levels were determined using the data literacy scale. In the last part of the research, readers were asked to interpret these infographics through a focus group study. Thus, the research findings were reached after applying a multidimensional analysis. Another prominent aspect of the research is that a comprehensive analysis was applied to the entire process from the design of the infographic news, to the delivery of the infographic to the reader and the reader's interpretation. Therefore, by focusing on the relationship between data journalism and manipulation, this study provides a framework for understanding its importance and effects in today's media scene.