‘GUERILLA ANALYSIS’ AND THE INSTITUTIONAL VOICE: THE TELEGRAM’S PRODUCTIVE MESO-SPACE OF CORONAVIRUS VISUALIZATIONS

Abstract

During the coronavirus pandemic, Israeli Telegram became a staple venue of pandemic news, as the platform served as the Ministry of Health’s primary official output. Over time, Telegram also became home to a community of ‘Guerilla Analysts’ who pooled together their analytical resources to create a ‘National Graph Headquarters’. Utilizing the same data as the MoH channel, this ragtag crew of data-loving laypeople created a space in which data-literacies are shared and developed. Informed by conceptualizations of messaging apps as “news meso-space(s)”, digital collaborative information-making practices, and the notion that visualizations can promote civic deliberation and political empowerment, this paper explores the rhetorical and discursive framework that enabled informational migration and evolution, and the co-production of data-oriented pandemic narratives across both groups, resulting in an exceptionally empowering informational eco-system. It does so by applying qualitative rhetorical visualization analysis to 100 pairs of institutional and guerilla visualizations of the same data, prior to qualitative discourse analysis of 30 related comment threads. Findings reveal that while the ‘Institutional Voice’ remained focused on conservative visualizations of the present and past, guerilla analysts often re-visualize MoH visualizations into predictive narratives, and take bolder swings in proposing actionable implications. While primarily focused on sociable elucidation of complex analyses, comment discourse also challenges and re-visualizes ‘Guerilla’ narratives, further extending informational empowerment. Predominantly conceptualized as a subversive venue, I highlight Telegram as a civic platform and propose a conceptualization of messaging apps as productive and empowering meso-spaces, utilizing common social and analytical resources towards a common good.