ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses analytical approaches to visual communication with particular emphasis on data visualizations as graphical representations of various types of data. It focuses on main questions: What are the semiotic resources that constitute graphical representations of data, in diagrams and maps? How do they create meaning? How can graphical representations of data are produced, mediated, and integrated in textual and social practices and how can such representations be described as a semiotic mode? The chapter outlines the visual sign-systems involved in the field of data visualization. It examines the term graphic modes in several ways. Those are elements of graphic modes can be color, texture, shape, position and alignment; the class of visual expressions referred to as graphs or diagrams constitute a discoursive resource with specific semiotic affordances and conventions, and can thus be investigated with methods inspired by linguistics.
