Journalists work hard to communicate science to the public, and we use more than words to do it. Visuals are vital tools in our journalistic kit, whether it’s a graphic explaining the relationship between two datasets, as in the bar chart on how people share fake news on social media, or the cover image of a wad of bills that clearly says “money.”
I find the conversations we have about how to best illustrate a story endlessly enthralling, and one of the great pleasures of my job. For a feature story, those conversations start weeks, even months, before the story goes to press. A whole bunch of people cram into design director Erin Otwell’s tiny office: the writer, features editor Cori Vanchieri, assistant art directors Chang Won Chang and Tracee Tibbitts, chief design officer Stephen Egts, digital director Kate Travis, associate digital editor Helen Thompson and yours truly. Much discussion ensues, whether it’s over how best to convey symmetry in the laws of physics (a series of simple illustrations) or how the brain clears out waste while we sleep (a diagram of the flow of cerebrospinal fluid).