Leveraging Foundation Models for Crafting Narrative Visualization: A Survey (2401.14010v3)

Abstract: Narrative visualization effectively transforms data into engaging stories, making complex information accessible to a broad audience. Foundation models, essential for narrative visualization, inherently facilitate this process through their superior ability to handle natural language queries and answers, generate cohesive narratives, and enhance visual communication. Inspired by previous work in narrative visualization and recent advances in foundation models, we synthesized potential tasks and opportunities for foundation models at various stages of narrative visualization. In our study, we surveyed 77 papers to explore the role of foundation models in automatingnarrative visualization creation. We propose a reference model that leverages foundation models for crafting narrative visualization, categorizing the reviewed literature into four essential phases: Analysis, Narration, Visualization, and Interaction. Additionally, we identifyeight specific tasks where foundation models are applied across these stages. This study maps out the landscape of challenges and opportunities, providing insightful directions for future research and valuable guidance for scholars in the field.