Background

Gone Viral: COVID-19 Fake News in Thailand is a longform interactive storytelling website developed in collaboration with Bangkok Post and Wisesight. The project examines the spread of misinformation during Thailand's COVID-19 pandemic by mapping fake news occurrences against pandemic waves through an interactive timeline.

The Challenge

During a time of public distress and information overload, fake news became difficult to identify. The project needed to find the right angle and balance between data-driven evidence and journalistic narrative—clarifying the widely-discussed but often blurry terminology of "fake news" while representing its nuances. Additionally, the project required bridging workflows between traditional journalism practices and data visualization methods, collaborating with teams more accustomed to conventional reporting formats.

What I Did

• Data Storytelling Workshop: Conducted workshops with Bangkok Post journalist teams before project kickoff, introducing data journalism as a new medium and demonstrating how data could work alongside their strong field research and qualitative interview skills

• Art Direction: Led visual strategy for the four-chapter narrative structure

• Website Design: Created sitemap organizing content types to guide web development workflow

• Data Visualization: Designed interactive timeline comparing fake news spread with COVID-19 waves

• Data Exploration: Sketched visualization possibilities before data cleaning, then used RawGraph and Flourish to create final storytelling graphics

Working with aggregated social data from Wisesight and content written by Bangkok Post journalists and Patchar Duangklad.

Outcomes

Delivered an interactive website that introduced a new digital storytelling medium to Bangkok Post's traditionally print-focused journalism, making complex misinformation patterns accessible and evident to the public during a critical period of the pandemic.

Link:

Website: https://www.bangkokpost.com/specials/data-visualization/