Visual Communication 1999 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
Listening To The Subjects Of Routine News Photographs: A Grounded Moral Inquiry • Cindy Brown, Southern Mississippi • This study explores the relationship between photojournalists and subjects using a method of ethical inquiry known as grounded moral theory. Grounded moral theory consists of listening to people’s concerns, generating recommendations based on these concerns, and extrapolating to ethical theory. Interviews with subjects of news photographs revealed subjects’ were concerned about two types of understanding: (1) contextual understanding conveyed in their photograph/story, and (2) understanding photojournalists showed them.
Grounding the Teaching of Journalistic Design in Creativity Theory: 10 Steps to a More Creative Curriculum • Renita Coleman and Jan Colbert, Missouri • Creativity is an important ingredient in news design. Yet most Classes do little more than offer examples of others’ creative works; rarely do we teach students how to develop the cognitive skills they can use to tap into their own creativity. The purpose of this article is to propose a change in the way journalism design classes are taught, from using an anecdotal approach to creativity, to one that is grounded in theory developed through psychological research.
How Marc Riboud’s Photographic Report From Hanoi Argued The Vietnam War Was Unwinnable • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • While many combat photographs presented American involvement as morally wrong, Marc Riboud’s 1968 report on North Vietnam argued that the war could not be won by the U.S. and its South Vietnamese ally. His pictures show the saturation bombing failed at two primary objectives: to break the North’s will to resist and to interdict the flow of military sup-plies to the South. They also humanize the North Vietnamese people and their top leaders, who had been demonized by U.S. officials.
Typographic Design Considerations for the Elderly: An Analysis of AARP’s Bulletin • Catherine K. Craven and Birgit Wassmuth, Missouri • As baby boomers enter their elderly years, between 2010 and 2030, as many as one in five Americans will be 65 or older. That’s up to 80 million people. As people age, their vision changes. Designers and publishers must make changes now to keep up with the needs of this affluent audience. Hear the state of design guidelines for the aging. See if AARP pushes the “elder design” envelope in redesigning its Bulletin.
Cops Like Us: Camera Placement and Viewer Identification on Cops • Veronica Davison, Pennsylvania • Although reality-based crime programs are growing in popularity among communication scholars, a focus on camera movement has been virtually ignored. This study examines how camera perspective, camera angle, and shot structure create a sense of identification on the part of the viewer (as outlined in the theory of paraproxemics) and how each may or may not be altered depending on who is framed in the shot. While the analysis of camera angle and shot structure do not support the theory of paraproxemics, through the use of the involved-objective camera, camera perspective does appear to offer moderate support for Meyrowitz’s theory of paraproxemics.
Readability of Reverse Type in Computer Mediated Communication • Joel Geske, Iowa State University • This experimental design used 78 subjects to test readability of type on computer screens. Subjects read passages set in traditional high contrast black type on a white background; low contrast black type on a gray background; and reverse type (white type on a black background). Subjects were tested for speed of reading and recall of material. The study found significant differences and reversals of previous re-search based on print media.
Reading Between the Photographs: The Influence of Incidental Pictorial Information on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, Alabama • An identical news report on an Appalachian tick disease was differently illustrated. It either contained no images, an image of ticks, or this tick image plus three child victims. The victims were ethnically balanced (two White, one Black) or not (either all White or all Black). The text did not make any reference to the victims’ ethnicity. Respondents assessed the risk of contracting the disease for children of different ethnicity.
The College Studio Critique: What Does it Mean to Students? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • The primary investigator conducted three participant observations, one focus group and ten individual interviews. The study showed that students are not actually taught to critique-they are “thrown” into it and learn by experience. Results indicate students’ preferences for certain critique formats-what’s helpful and what’s not. Participants also discussed the role of peers and professors in the critique process, along with the effect of grades. Further implications of the college classroom critique are discussed.
Readers’ Perception of Digital Alteration and Truth-value in Documentary Photographs • Edgar Shaohua Huang, Indiana University • This is a baseline study on how readers of print news media accept digital imaging alterations and how much they trust digital documentary images. The purpose is to examine to what extent readers accept the postmodern ideas about truth and reality embedded in this new technology and to provide empirical basis for the making of guidelines and principles regarding the use of digitally altered photographs in documentary contexts. Survey and in-depth interviews were conducted to understand both patterns and rationales of readers’ attitudes.
The Visual Representation Of Individuals Of Different Genders, Ages And Ethnicity’s In The Photographs Of The Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine gender, age and ethnic stereotypes and portrayals in news photographs of the Los Angeles Times. The Times was chosen because of its status as one of the nation’s great newspapers and because it serves a diverse populace where Latinos are the majority, and the presence of African Americans and Latinos is very high. Although many stereotypes were still found to exist, changes were noticeable-some positive and some negative.
“Negro Stars” and the USIA’s Portrait of Democracy •- Melinda M. Schwenk, Pennsylvania • From 1952-1961, the U.S. Information Agency indirectly addressed the nation’s race problems with films about “Negro stars.” This paper analyzes how the USIA celebrated in films the lives of five famous African-Americans to provide evidence that American democracy fostered individual freedom.
A Comparative Study of Internet Page Legibility on WebTV and PC-TV Large-Screen Displays • Peter B. Seel, Colorado State University • This study compared the legibility of text in three Internet Web sites displayed on a large 32-inch television set using WebTV technology, with a similarly-sized, high-resolution PC-TV digital screen. The study found that the legibility of navigation and main body text on the WebTV system was superior to that of the PC-TV display at the longer distance, but the PC-TV display provided better overall text legibility at shorter distances. With the diffusion of television-based Internet access systems such as WebTV, these findings are important in assessing the relative legibility of Web site content in large-screen home viewing environments.
The Stereograph: The Rise And Decline Of Victorian Virtual Reality • James Staebler, Ohio University • This study examines the rise and decline in public popularity of the stereograph or more commonly known as the stereo view. This popular Victorian mode of entertainment was the precursor to the modern popularity of three dimensional games) pictures and posters seen in the mass media today. Many factors contributed to the decline of stereographs after the First World War. The popularity of new technology such as the automobile, motion pictures and radio helped erode this medium.
Claims And Visual Frames On The World Wide Web: An Approach To Framing Analysis Of Visual Content • Jean Trumbo, Wisconsin, Madison • A visual frame analysis model is developed and applied to a site on the World Wide Web with the assumption that site structure and visual elements encourage particular kinds of audience response and that elements are organized in a manner that asserts or advocates certain themes. Theories of framing as applied in communication and in visual design are synthesized. Framing devices developed in the model include five categories: syntactic, semantic, grammatical, thematic, and rhetorical structures.
Cuddly Bear and Vicious Ape: Soviets and Germans in editorial cartoons, 1933-1946 • Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang Technological University • During the 14-year period 1933 to 1946, relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union fluctuated wildly-from ally to enemy to ally to enemy. This study is an examination of the portrayal of Soviets in editorial cartoons printed in three American newspapers during this period. Although pubic opinion polls in the late 1930s and early 1940s showed that Americans disliked Soviets even more than Germans, editorial cartoons of the Soviets were often favorable during the period.
Visual Rhetoric: A Semiotic Evaluation of the Misrepresentation of a Subculture within the Myth of Lesbian Chic in Mainstream Advertising • Susan Zavoina, Tom Reichert, North Texas • Visual imagery dominates advertising messages. A visual rhetoric is established as the viewer’s perception of the advertising message is defined. Homoerotic images of women are appearing in mainstream consumer advertising giving credence to a phenomenon of “lesbian chic.” Through a semiotic analysis this paper suggests that the meanings embedded in these advertising images have little to do with “lesbianism” per se and are more closely aligned with mainstream heterosexual pornography of women engaged in “lesbian” sex.
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