Visual Communication 1998 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
The Limits of Copyright Protection for the Use of Visual Works in Motion Pictures, Print Media and Pop Art in the 1990s • Andy Bechtel and Arati Korwar, Louisiana State University • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Creating Visual Metaphors of the Internet • Walter M. Bortz, William R. Davie and Jung-Sook Lee, Southwestern Louisiana • This study examined visual metaphors of the Internet created by college students. The authors applied an Interaction theory to their data from a series of in-depth interviews and classified visual metaphors into metaphoric types. They identified 23 types of visual metaphors, including challenge, navigation, food, privacy, flowing, knowledge and information, and powerful force. They also discussed implications of metaphoric research for communication theory and practice by focusing on the nature of projective or similarity-creating metaphors.
Perceptions of Graphics Versus No Graphics on Web Sites • Rebecca J. Chamberlin, Ohio University • An experiment was conducted to better understanding how the design of a web site affects the viewers’ perceptions of it. High-graphic and low-graphic versions of web sites were compared by five groups of viewers. There was no difference in how difficult the viewers felt it was to find information on the sites. However, different demographic groups had different perceptions of attractiveness and different preference for content or graphics.
Design Characteristics of Public Journalism: Integrating Visual and Verbal Meaning • Renita Coleman, Missouri-Columbia • Public journalists argue that the content of stories generated through public journalism is different from that generated by traditional reporting methods. This prompts the question: If the content of stories generated through public journalism methods is different, and design is driven by content, doesn’t it follow that design for public journalism will be different than design for non-public journalism? Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study used the principles of design to explore how public journalism projects have been visually communicated in newspapers practicing the public journalism genre, and how it differs from the visual communication of non-public journalism.
Influencing Creativity in Newsrooms: A Survey of Newspaper, Magazine, and Web Designers • Renita Coleman and Jan Colbert, Missouri-Columbia • Editorial designers (newspaper, magazine and web) are an intrical part of the creative process in the newsroom, yet no research has been done in this area. This study provides insight into what influences the creative abilities of designers by analyzing their personality characteristics and thinking strategies as well as independent variables relevant to their working conditions. Understanding how to foster creativity in design will help newspapers and magazines stay competitive, and help web designers understand more about their nascent medium.
The Development of Standard and Alternative Forms of Photojournalism • Timothy Roy Gleason, Bowling Green State University • By the mid-1950s standard photojournalism practices were established which excluded alternative practices. The paper explores their development from the 1930s through the 1950s. Standards of journalistic objectivity and an emphasis on the denotative qualities of photography were propagated by editors and reporters. This style of photojournalism is presented in contrast to the work of Robert Frank. His photography was not accepted in journalism because of his subjective style.
Visual Design for the World Wide Web: What Does the User Want? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • This paper examines interface design for the World Wide Web. The author designed a Website and conducted five focus groups to determine issues that were important to potential users. This study indicates that users will play a large role in the evolution of Web design standards. As more media options become available, users’ needs must be gratified. World Wide Web sites should be fast, fresh, exciting and interactive. Further implications for Web design are discussed.
Afterthoughts on the Representational Strategies of the FSA Documentary • Edgar Shaohua Huang, Indiana University • This paper analyzed the truth strategies of documentary photography from the positivist, social constructivist, Marxist, and postmodern perspectives in an attempt to find out what caused the decline of documentary photography and whether traditional documentary can reinvented. The analysis focused on the FSA works (especially on Arthur Rothstein’s famous Skull picture), which have been regarded by photographic communities as classical documentary photography.
Who Gets Named?: Nationality, Race and Gender in New York Times Photograph Cutlines • John M. King, Louisiana State University • This research examined 986 New York Times images to asses the impact of nationality, race and gender on named individuals in cutlines. Chi-square tests, significant at less than .001, showed that Americans were named more often than non-Americans. Caucasians were named more often than Hispanics, Asians and Middle easterners, but less often than people of African descent. Males were named more often than females. Two hypotheses were still supported after controlling for nine story types.
Altered Plates: Photo Manipulation and the Search for News Value in the Early and Late Twentieth Century • Wilson Lowrey, Georgia • Recent cases of news photo manipulation have editors and photo directors up in arms over the dangers of digital technology. Photo manipulation, however, was not born in the digital world • it is only nurtured there. Artists and photographers have been altering and staging photos since the invention of photography in the 19th century. And the period from 1910 to the 1930s, immediately following the perfection of the halftone technique, was perhaps the heyday for news photo manipulation.
The Rhetorical Structure of California Reich: Exploring the Strengths and Dilemmas of Guiding Audience Response in Classical Documentary Filmed in Cinema Verite • Kate Madden, SUNY Brockport • California Reich is a classical documentary filmed in cinema verite style which explores the Neo-Nazi movement in California in the mid-1970s. First aired in 1976, the hour-long film continues in video distribution today and shares space in the “war” section of some video stores. As classical documentary, California Reich fits into a tradition which clearly defines documentary as a rhetorical text which consciously attempts to persuade audiences to a particular point of view about its subject matter.
Effects of Novelty in News Photographs on Attention and Memory • Andrew Mendelson, Southern University-Edwardsville • Two experiments are reported that examined the effects of novelty in terms of preferences for viewing, viewing time, recall memory, and interest ratings, in an attempt to isolate how atypical news photographs are processed. This research separated the two concepts of content and compositional novelty. Both experiments showed that more novel news photographs attracted attention, were looked at longer, were rated as more interesting, and were better remembered.
When Mona Lisa and Madison Avenue Dance • Kimberly Paul, Texas-Austin • At the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, the success of an advertising campaign is measured not by its effectiveness but by its artfulness, its creativity. No matter that the top award is the Grand Prix. The real reward • and what most of the entrants are hoping for • is recognition that what they are doing is art. However, like Shakespeare’s two houses divided, the cultural families of art and advertising disagree over whether advertising can be a legitimate art form.
The First Person Effect in Mass Communications: Reaction to “The Man Against the Tanks” of Tiananmen • David D. Perlmutter, Louisiana State University • This paper suggests a phenomenon called the “first-person effect,” a useful way to explain how discourse elites, politicians, pundits, journalists, and scholars of visual culture, affect the news pictures that they comment upon. Using the famous image of the man who stood against the tanks neat Tiananmen Square in spring 1989, I examine to what extent a news image actually has the “power” to shock, outrage or change the opinion of the public and the policy makers.
Imperial Imaginary: Photography and the Invention of the British Raj • Shakuntala Rao, SUNY Plattsburgh • This paper attempts to make a connection between photography and the British rule in India. It specifically discusses the work of Samuel Bourne who traveled and photographed the subcontinent extensively from 1863-70. Analysis reveals that Bourne aided in, what refer to, as the “imperial imaginary” of the Raj primarily in his photography of Himalayan landscapes and ancient Indian architecture. Having arrived in India right after the sepoy mutiny, Bourne also faced aesthetic and political dilemmas when confronted with the vastness and variety of the land.
Errors and Inaccuracies in Iowa’s Local Newspaper Information Graphics • Lulu Rodriguez, Iowa State University • This content analysis explores the accuracy with which data are presented in charts in a select sample of community newspapers in Iowa. It examined 187 information graphics contained in 268 issues of 28 community newspapers. Results indicate the dearth of charts in many newspapers. Majority of the charts depicted international, local business and infrastructure development topics. Locator maps were the most predominantly used followed by line graphs and bar graphs. Violations of chart making conventions, misrepresentation of data using percentages, non-comparability of data, inappropriateness of chart, overdressed graphs, and the absence of text-graphic correspondence were the most common mistakes observed.
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