Visual Communication 2011 Abstracts
Developing and testing self-administered computer tutorials using Photoshop as the model • William Adams, Kansas State University • The study used focus groups to evaluate how effective commercial and tutorials provided with computer software were in teaching students with no previous experience. Students did not consider any of them affective for those totally unfamiliar with the software. We then tested our own 11-step Photoshop tutorial for beginners, designed to be self taught using a manual and Photoshop, with success. A second set of tutorials for more advanced work was then also created.
Oil-soaked Images of Disaster: Identifying the National vs. Local Television Visuals • Victoria Bemker LaPoe, LSU; Andrea Miller, Louisiana State University • This study seeks to identify the television visual imagery of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill across national and local news outlets as it unfolded over time. The study compared a content analysis of the visuals from week one of the disaster to week six of the disaster. The visuals of the first week represent a media trying to come to terms with the loss of life, the enormity of the disaster, and the difficulties in covering it. The visuals of week six represent consequences and containment. National versus local differences in visual coverage are discussed in terms of their individual missions and responsibilities to their publics.
The Use and Abuse of Financial Graphs in American and British Annual Reports • Zhilian Deng, Iowa State University • This study examines the use of graphs in the 2009 annual reports of 30 leading American and British companies in terms of selectivity and the extent to which companies manipulate these infographics to serve managerial interests. The results indicate that selectivity occurs in both countries, but the U.S. annual reports demonstrated more measurement distortions. The U.K. companies were more likely to use new types of graphs with a greater tendency to blur data.
The aesthetics of cosmetic surgery: How websites visualize the fountain of youth • Robyn Goodman, U. of Florida • The present study investigated the visuals on cosmetic surgery websites including photographs, gender, hair color, eye color, color choices, and typography. The content analysis of 90 cosmetic surgery websites showed more women than men in general photographs and on commercially sponsored sites but men and women appeared in the proportions expected in before-and-after photographs. Brunette men and women significantly outnumbered blondes. However, there more significantly more men with dark colored eyes, while women were significantly more likely to have light colored eyes. Cool colors were used significantly more than warm colors. Sans serif was the most used type classification. These findings are important because previous research has found that website visuals, colors, and typography have been found to produce greater recall, persuasion, learning, positive attitudes, and behavioral intentions (e.g., Leong et al., 1996; Hall & Hanna, 2004; Tractinsky et al., 2006; Robins & Holmes, 2008).
Picturing defiance: Visions of Democracy in Iran • Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri • This study examines the visual framing in photographs related to Iran’s 2009 presidential election, comparing images photographers identified as their best work to those considered the Pictures of the Year. The analysis shows photographers primarily covered events leading up to the election and the violence that followed through a variety of frames while the award-winning photographs framed the election primarily through the violence, presenting a much narrower interpretation to outside observers”
Narratives and Television News Editing • Keren Henderson, LSU • This study offers a method for analyzing the narrative content of television news videos. Very few scholars approach the study of visual narratives in television news because the technique is highly specialized and not commonly articulated by practitioners. However, cognitive experiments are supporting the importance of understanding the way the brain processes video messages; in particular, those coming from television news. Based in norms and routines theory, this study combines an unprecedented method of content analysis and in-depth interviews with award-winning local news editors in order to reveal the contemporary state of narrative production in television news.
Building a Case for Visual Communication Curriculum • Yung Soo Kim, University of Kentucky; Deborah Chung, University of Kentucky • A Web-based survey of administrators (N =59) and visual instructors (N = 60) was employed to examine the state of visual communication curricula among U.S. journalism and mass communication programs. Findings indicate courses were smaller, skills-based and required by a limited number of students. Instructors had strong professional backgrounds, had stronger opinions for expanding visual communication education and indicated having less confidence in their students’ competence when landing a job than administrators.
From Pictorialism to Visual Cliché: Tracing the Historical Developments of Scenic Photography in China • Shi Li • This paper traces the historical developments of scenic photography, a highly popular and amateurish art form in China, from its initial pictorial style to the current debate about its banality. Through an examination of major scenic photographs throughout China’s modern and contemporary history, it argues that scenic photography was born from pictorialism as a means for Chinese photographers to reclaim their Chinese cultural identity by appropriating a western medium against the backdrop of imperialism and colonialism.
Framing Franco: Editorializing Time Newsmagazine Cover Art Through Switching to Illustration • Sarah Merritt, North Carolina State University • Visual media used in mass communication serve as unique and powerful components in the framing used by mainstream media outlets to guide perception and interpretation of foreign events. Still powerful and influential today, Time newsmagazine is one of the oldest mainstream news outlets in the U.S. that has consistently guided public perception of foreign events through editorialized illustration of foreign leaders. During the Spanish Civil War, the late dictator Franco became the first foreign leader to be portrayed through editorialized illustration on Time cover art, and this qualitative case study aimed to identify and interpret historical presence and utility of visual framing components in Time’s coverage of Franco from 1936 to 1966. The six solo portraitures of Franco appearing on Time cover art were analyzed across a four-tier methodology, beginning with the identification of manifest content and visual metaphor and ending with ideological interpretation. Utilizing framing theory to predict, identify and explain the use of visual frame components, the analysis extends from identifying these components towards the interpretation of ideological implications. Ideological implications included portrayal of Franco’s inner character in terms of interactivity with the viewer and his imposition and threat to the U.S. Through qualitatively interpreting how illustrated foreground and background content in each image were used to convey specific messages, findings revealed that the potential use of visual framing based on components necessary for visual framing coincided with ideological messages that influence public perception of foreign events.
Developing News Photography: The Post-WWII Rise of Normative Photojournalism Instruction in Liberal Arts Journalism Education • Stanton Paddock, University of Maryland • This paper seeks to explain the development of normative photojournalism education practice in the fifteen years following WWII. Drawing on historical evidence preserved in contemporary scholarly writings and the archival records the Department of Journalism and Public Relations at the University of Maryland, this paper finds photojournalism education was gradually included and a normative form of liberal arts-based journalism education developed. Strong echoes of this are found in journalism education today. As modern journalism education seeks to include new forms of multimedia journalism, many of the same issues raised 60 years ago are encountered.
Framing Kim Jong-Il in American Political Cartoons • Sangwon Park • This study investigated how American political cartoons visually represented the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il from 2001 to 2009. To assist the primary analysis, this study also examined how President George W. Bush was portrayed, as compared to Kim Jong-Il, to determine whether the media (cartoons) supported the American foreign policy and its values. Based on media framing analysis, 85 political cartoons in the American news media (primarily newspapers) were analyzed. The study found that issues related to nuclear weapons and missiles appeared to be the dominant frame used to portray North Korea in American political cartoons during the Bush administration. Furthermore, Kim Jong-Il was mainly depicted as a criminal, immature and childish being, and aggressor, which also supported that American political cartoons published during the Bush administration did advocate American foreign policy toward North Korea.
Visual representations of genetic engineering and genetically modified organisms in the online media • Lulu Rodriguez, Iowa State University; Ruby Lynn Asoro, Iowa State University • Do images of biotechnology that saturate the media accurately portray the science and the process? A content analysis of web images collected over a seven-day period was conducted. The results show an abundance of visuals in personal and special interest group sites, stock photo and cartoon banks. Images with a negative valence trounced those with a positive tone. The visuals presented a range of perspectives on genetic engineering, but many failed the accuracy test.
Meaning of Democracy Around the World: A Thematic and Structural Analysis of Videos Defining Democracy • Hyunjin Seo, University of Kansas; Dennis Kinsey • This study examines thematic and structural features of short films submitted to a worldwide video competition defining democracy. A total of 120 videos are analyzed to examine prominent themes of democracy such as popular participation and diversity as well as audio/visual elements of the videos from around the world. Authors investigate whether and how thematic and structural aspects of videos are different based on geographical region and measure of democracy of the country.
Still “Live at the Scene”: A quantitative analysis of timeliness in local television broadcast hard news stories re-published as online content • Jennifer Ware, North Carolina State University • This study assessed grounding elements present in broadcast news stories re-purposed as online content and investigated the presence or absence of temporal fixity. A content analysis of 266 online news videos from NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX affiliate stations was conducted. The videos (n=209) were found to have high levels of timeliness and no temporal fixity. There are three objectives of this research (1) to contribute a new theoretical concept, temporal fixity, (2) to provide news media with ways of thinking about repurposed online materials (3) outline a new method of studying online materials with the screen capture software Camtasia®.
Shooting the Shooter: How experience level affects photojournalistic coverage of a breaking news event • Carolyn Yaschur, University of Texas at Austin • Interviews were conducted with professional, student, and citizen photojournalists to determine how experience level and training affect the photojournalistic coverage of a breaking news event. Building upon the Hierarchy of Influences approach, influences on the individual and routines levels were examined. Four themes emerged – emotional attachment to the story, teamwork and competition, risk taking, and intent and approach – which varied by level of experience and were complicated by role as a student or employee.
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