Entre opacidades e transparências: estratégias retóricas da infografia estatística no instagram

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the rhetorical strategies employed by statistical infographic pages on Instagram. The problem guiding the study lies in the gap in research devoted to understanding the rhetorical dimensions of infographics on this platform. In addition, infographics are frequently presented as neutral tools, as transparent lenses for data, a perspective defended by authors such as Edward Tufte, who criticizes the use of elements considered decorative in visualizations. However, this study is grounded in the assumption that all communication is rhetorical and shaped by intention, so that the supposed neutrality would itself constitute a rhetorical effect. Based on this understanding, the research operates with two analytical categories: the rhetoric of opacity and the rhetoric of transparency. These categories were developed through a bibliographic review that identifies a historical debate in the field of information visualization, particularly between the minimalist perspective associated with Edward Tufte and the approaches that recognize and value the presence of expressive and narrative layers in infographics, such as those developed by Nigel Holmes. While transparency privileges the reduction of graphic elements and an emphasis on data, opacity involves visual metaphors, textures, images, and graphic layers that add meaning to the visualization. The research adopted a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach developed in three stages. First, a content analysis was applied to two hundred infographics collected from four specialized Instagram pages, fifty per page, based on fourteen opacity coders. Next, eight infographics were submitted to a rhetorical analysis grounded in Foss's method and in the New Rhetoric of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. Finally, an enhancement of the opacity analysis model was proposed, the reliability of which was tested using Krippendorff's alpha coefficient, in order to constitute a replicable tool. The results indicate that both the infographics closer to transparency and the more opaque ones presented argumentative density, which points to a rhetoric of neutrality in the less opaque ones, aimed at connoting credibility through their aesthetics.