How do different audiences make sense of climate change data visualizations and what do they take away as a main message? To investigate this question, we are building on the results of a previous study, focusing on expert opinions regarding public climate change communication and the role of data visualizations. Hereby, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 experts in the fields of climate change, science communication, or data visualization. We also interviewed six lay persons with no professional background in either of these areas. With this analysis, we aim to shed light on how lay audiences arrive at an understanding of climate change data visualizations and what they take away as a main message. For two exemplary data visualizations, we compare their takeaway messages with messages formulated by experts. Through a thematic analysis, we observe differences regarding the included contents, the length and abstraction of messages, and the sensemaking process between and among the participant groups.

翻译：不同受众如何理解气候变化数据可视化，并从中得出什么主要信息？为探究这一问题，我们基于先前研究结果展开分析，重点关注专家对公众气候变化传播及数据可视化作用的看法。我们为此对17位气候变化、科学传播或数据可视化领域的专家进行了半结构化访谈，同时访谈了六位来自非相关领域的普通公众。通过此项分析，我们旨在揭示普通受众如何理解气候变化数据可视化及其提取的主要信息。针对两个典型案例，我们将其传达的信息与专家拟定的信息进行比较。通过主题分析，我们观察到不同参与群体在信息内容、长度与抽象程度，以及意义建构过程方面存在差异。