Visualizing the Amazon: Data-Driven Storytelling, Mapping and Audience for Environmental Journalism

Environmental journalism plays a vital role in public discourse but faces challenges in engaging audiences within a fragmented digital media landscape dominated by Big Tech companies. This study explores how data-driven storytelling, personalized news delivery, and community-centered narratives influence audience engagement and trust in environmental journalism, with a specific focus on the Amazon region. Through a series of focus groups with local audiences (including journalists, researchers, activists, and concerned citizens conducted) in partnership with the Brazilian news outlet InfoAmazonia, we analyze audience expectations and consumption habits. Findings reveal a significant asynchrony between in-depth investigative reporting and audiences’ preferences on concise, visually-driven content like interactive maps and short videos. Data visualizations are shown to enhance credibility, but digital media platforms serve as the primary, yet algorithmically limited, gateway to access news. Moreover, audiences expressed a strong demand for greater representation of local and Indigenous voices, alongside more solutions-focused narratives in news stories. This research contributes to the existing literature and practice by offering insights for news media on how to produce relevant environmental content for audiences, advocating for a hybrid journalistic approach that balances rigorous data analysis with accessible, human-centered storytelling to foster deeper engagement and trust.