Visual Communication 2019 Abstracts
Plastics and Polar Bears: Measuring Environmental Framing Effects on Perceived Distance and Sense of Motivation • Danielle Quichocho; Kathleen I. Alaimo, U of Colorado • A critical form of communication for environmental NGOs is the use of photographs to inform and advocate. Therefore, the way in which those images are framed has broad implications for the NGO and the public. This study examines the effect of psychological distance frames upon motivation to help the environment by conducting a survey of college students (n=52). Findings indicate that while distance is salient for all images, a sense of urgency is not.
Video Convergence: Factors Affecting Photojournalists’ Satisfaction and Adoption • Christopher Assaf, University of Texas at Austin • A survey of visual journalists (N=132) shooting online video finds that factors affecting photojournalists satisfaction and perceptions of quality are related to training and experience. As the convergence of still and video continues at media outlets after more than ten years, overall, more than half of visual journalists surveyed are satisfied shooting online video. Survey respondents who had more video training had higher satisfaction with their video shooting and higher their perception of quality in their video shooting. However, when it comes to convergence, only 44% of respondent had combined still photography and video shooting on assignment at some or all the time — showing a low rate of video technology being adopted and combined with the still photography skillset. Of that, 55% showed dissatisfaction with shooting both stills and video. Findings are discussed in regard to diffusion of innovations theory.
A lion or a lone wolf? Developing a visual measure of archetypal personality for communication research • Jared Brickman, Carnegie Dartlet • The accurate measure of psychological predictors like personality is pivotal to communication research seeking to tailor messages or explain behaviors. Unfortunately, measuring personality is difficult due to desirability bias and lack of universality in understanding trait-based questionnaires. This research builds on literature that suggests visual measures, like icons or emojis, can eliminate some of this bias. Icons were developed for measuring archetypal personality and were tested with two surveys and dozens of real-world case studies.
Visualizing Candidates and Graphicating the News: Evidence from US Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1992-2012 • Erik Bucy, Texas Tech University; Othello Richards, Texas Tech University • The systematic subdivision and increasing graphication of television screen space has proceeded apace in the digital era with little systematic scrutiny despite its widespread application in newscasts locally, nationally, and internationally. The handful of studies that do exist suggest that graphication of broadcast news can aid in story comprehension but also distract from the traditional audiovisual content of news reporting. No analysis has yet considered the prevalence of television news graphics from a systematic, longitudinal perspective. In this paper we perform a visual content analysis of 20 years’ worth of presidential campaign coverage (1992 to 2012) to examine longitudinal trends in the use of graphication by the major broadcast networks since the rise of digital editing. In particular, we examine the use of boxes and split screens by the three main evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC, which despite experiencing declines in viewership during this period still maintained the largest television news audience during the study period. Beyond documenting a steady—and dramatic—increase in the use of graphication elements, the study finds that candidates are graphicated far more than journalists, although the gap is closing, and Republicans are more often put into boxes and split screens than Democrats. NBC uses these visual elements the most of any network. Trailing candidates are also put into boxes and split screens more than front-runners and candidates who are running in close races. Implications for candidate evaluations and informed citizenship, and the need for experimental studies to document graphication effects, are discussed.
Framing Me Too: A Visual Analysis of the Social Movement’s News Coverage on Twitter • Holly Cowart, Georgia Southern University • This content analysis examines how major U.S. news outlets represent the Me Too movement on Twitter. Using framing, it focuses on images of people in tweets as a form of visual communication. Nine news outlets’ Twitter accounts were sampled to identify relevant themes and explore their potential role in shaping society’s understanding of the movement. Findings include a greater visual emphasis on those accused of sexual misconduct than its victims and a reliance on celebrities.
The impact of imagery: Visual journalists’ assessment of the power of images • Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; Brent Walth, University of Oregon; Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon • Academic debate exists regarding the actual power that images possess to create outcomes or journalistic “impact.” While there is a growing body of research on journalistic impact, it is a generally underexplored research area, and there are no known studies specifically bringing together journalistic impact research with photojournalism literature on the power of imagery. Through surveys with visual journalists, this research explores fundamental questions about journalists’ perceptions of, and experiences with, images and impact.
No, Memes No! Digital Persuasion in the #MeToo Era • Shahira Fahmy; Omneya Ibrahim, American University in Cairo • This study bridges a gap in communication research by conducting an integrative framing analysis of Twitter memes based on the pathos, ethos and logos persuasion appeals. Specifically, this study examines both visual and textual information in the most popular memes of the #MeToo campaign. Results are based on a quantitative content analysis of the top 1,000 Me Too memes on Twitter during the week in which sexual misconduct allegations were made against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, then nominee for the US Supreme Court justice. Findings reveal the role of different persuasion principles in online social movements. Results showed anti-#MeToo memes significantly focused more on the emotional appeal and less on the logos and ethos appeals than pro-#MeToo memes. Overall, the work contributes to the growing memes literature that empirically explores the integration between visual and verbal modalities in the contemporary digital media environment.
On the boundaries: Professional photojournalists navigating identity in an age of technological democratization • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; Ross Taylor, U of Colorado; Kathleen I. Alaimo, U of Colorado • In the wake of an influx of interlopers populating photojournalism, this study utilizes in-depth interviews with 21 professional photojournalists to better understand how they construct their identity. With a framework of social identity theory, this research found photojournalists consider clear role conception, adherence to normative journalism ethics and organizational backing as key components of their in-group. They consider a loyalty to citizens second, a lack of professional processes, and advocacy key parts of the out-group.
Visualizing the finish line: Exploring capstone courses in visual communications programs • Matthew Haught, University of Memphis; David Morris II, University of South Carolina Aiken • As the number of journalism and mass communications programs offering a visual communications focused program grows, the curriculum of programs should be examined. This study uses open-ended questionnaire responses with program coordinators and capstone instructors in journalism and mass communications-based visual communications programs. It finds that capstones include internships, ethics courses, campaigns courses, and advanced praxis courses. It concludes that the blend of theoretical and practical understanding and application is the overriding outcome for programs.
Night and day: A visual diptych of hate and horror in Charlottesville • Susan Keith, Rutgers University; Leslie-Jean Thornton, Arizona State University • Two photographs from the Unite the Right white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017—Samuel Corum’s flame-lit image of marcher Peter Cvjetanovic and Ryan M. Kelly’s Pulitzer-winning image of the car attack that killed Heather Heyer—captured the American imagination. This paper examines the rhetorics of contrast, emotion and resonance embedded in the images and argues that they have the potential to become iconic images.
The Visual Effects of Electronic Cigarette Warning Statement Features on Harm Perceptions of E-cigarette among Young Adults • Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Jim Thrasher, University of South Carolina; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina; Yoo Jin Cho, University of South Carolina • This study investigates young adults’ reactions to varying electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) warning statements. The results of a 3 (warning statement size: 30%, 50%, or 70% of magazine advertisement surface) by 2 (warning statement background: white or yellow) between-subject experiment (N = 320) with one nonfactorial control condition (advertisement with no warning statement) indicate that enlarged and yellow warning statements increased viewers’ perceived harm of e-cigarette use and in turn decreased their susceptibility to e-cigarette use.
Venus, Mars and the Sun: Gender Differences in the Persuasive Efficacy of GIFs with Positive and Negative Emotional Valence on Promoting Sunscreen Use • Bianca Ann Lee; Lena Cheng Yeng Lee; Tessa Su En Liang; Zandra Rui Yi Ang • This study explored the persuasive efficacy of Graphics Interchange Formats (GIFs) and gender’s moderating effect on visual format and emotional valence with a 2 (visual format) x 2 (emotional valence) x 3 (message repetition) mixed design. Key findings were: (a) men were more persuaded by animated GIFs, (b) valence had no significant effect on persuasion within animated GIFs, and (c) within negative valence, men were more persuaded by animated GIFs and women by static graphics.
You Are What You Post: The Interaction of Personality Traits and Visual Content on Instagram • Yuchen Liu • Drawing on the Big Five theory of personality, this study examined how personality traits influence the visual content theme that individuals post on Instagram as well as their posting behavior. An online questionnaire was conducted with 283 undergraduate students, followed by a visual content analysis with 1,000 Instagram posts. Although inconsistency exists between self-reported data and content analysis data, results revealed that personality traits predicted participants’ posting behavior the visual content theme that they post on Instagram. Scholarly and practical implications of this research were discussed in the context of growing visual content in both interpersonal and strategic communication and increasing availability of online social networking.
Journalism’s visual construction of place in environmental coverage • Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin; Ivy Ashe, University of Texas at Austin • This study builds on our understanding of how visual journalism is used with environmental reporting to create a sense of place and understanding in the audience. While most American photojournalism tends to favor close-up photos that include people, environmental coverage leans the opposite way— sweeping landscape photos depicting more of the earth and less of the people that inhabit it. Thus, a contradiction is presented to photojournalists attempting to create imagery to accompany environmental stories. Through a content analysis of wire and non-wire environmental photos on US newspaper front pages, our findings show support that person-focused feature imagery is being used more, though still mostly at an informational level.
U.S. front-pages: Visual news values in wire versus non-wire photographs • Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin; Tara Mortensen • The present study uses a sample of US daily front-pages to examine visual differences between wire and non-wire photography on front pages. The results show that the sample of wire images contain more people than non-wire images, were more emotional and more graphically-appealing, and were used as stand-alone art more frequently than non-wire images. Further, wire images were most-commonly implemented for topics about policy / politics and international relations, while non-wire images more commonly accompanied stories about ceremonies and festivals, as well as stories about the economy. Finally, higher-circulation newspapers in the sample used wire images more often than small-circulation newspapers.
Cost-efficient, Copious, and Not-So Credible? An examination of the credibility of staff and stock photography • Tara Mortensen; Brian McDermott, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Khadija Ejaz • This study addressed audience perceptions of the credibility of stock photography versus photographs taken by professional photojournalists. These audience perceptions were gauged using a newly-developed, reliable scale that measured the construct “photo credibility.” The results of the study suggest that people perceive the credibility of stock images as significantly lower than those taken by professional staff photographers. Professionally-shot, staff photographs were rated particularly high, and higher than stock images, in the variables of photojournalism professionalism, trust and accuracy. However, stock photographs were rated more credible in journalism professionalism, and there was no significant difference between the two groups within the area of completeness.
Photographs’ Role in Creating an Online Social Movement in Kuwait: A Case Study of Manshoor Blog Using Visual Frame Alignment Process • Noura Al-Duaijani; Tara Mortensen • This paper presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the role images can play in mobilizing online social movements’ values in conservative societies through the frame alignment process. The case study is of liberal Kuwaiti blog, Manshoor. The main frames used were the injustice frame, followed by the fear of personal suffering, the multiculturalism frame and the boundary frame. In addition to a traditional, qualitative analysis, three visual cues that are frequently used in semiotic analysis (social distance, contact, and point-of-view) are matched with traditional frames in order to visually, quantitatively code images. In this way, a reliable visual coding scheme for frame alignment analysis that makes use of cues was developed.
Race, Gender & Rationale: The Global Image in the Western Mind • Tara Pixley, Loyola Marymount University • This paper unpacks a content analysis of 15 years of photojournalism awarded by World Press Photo and Photographer of the Year International —the two most lauded photojournalism awards. Analyzing images in situ must account for both the subject pictured and the picture’s producer. As such, the project’s foundational questions are: who takes these images that represent the height of photojournalism and the most publicized views of human experience? What ideas do they ultimately produce about the world’s most vulnerable people and places? The study finds photojournalists are primarily white, male and Western, while award-winning images are most often of black and brown bodies immured in chaos, defined by catastrophe. Central to my argument is that if photojournalism purports to tell the visual story of all humanity, the fact that we continue to view the world’s entirety primarily through this white, male, colonial perspective has frightening implications. Joining a very recent upswing of interest in how journalism lacks diversity and equity within its producers and production processes, this research is an integral addition to the existing canon of visual communication knowledge. As it interrogates existing visual communication practices, it also offers questions to apply in the journalism classroom that can steer the next generation of storytellers toward improved production practices.
Creepy babies and the phenomenon of data distraction • Abby Rinaldi, University of Iowa • This paper examines three data visualizations from three prominent news sites (The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Independent) to identify trends of visual interference which disrupt sense-making and communication of narrative within the stories they seek to tell. The paper groups these different kinds of obstruction under the term data distraction. Data distraction defines the ways in which visualization design can inhibit understanding and clash with the goals and norms of data journalism.
Key Trends Visualizing Green and CSR on Skin Care and Cosmetic Websites • Michelle Seelig, University of Miami; Ruoyu Sun, University of Miami; Sanchary Pal; Huixin Deng • Advertisers and marketers have long used power visual representations of the natural world as a conceptual strategy to sell a variety of goods and services. In the last decade or so, some research has started to emerge that found more companies providing details how their brand or product is made beneficial to protecting the environment. Literature also supports that green branding extends to the web aimed at consumers looking for brands and products aligned with their value system. We believe green themes and CSR important for online branding and informing consumers about their ecological stewardship. Drawing from the literature on green advertising, CSR, and visual framing, we explore the current state of environmental brand identification on skin care and cosmetic websites and the various elements used to frame greenness portraying a pro-environmental stewardship. Overall, findings show improvements including more substantive claims and CSR activities on websites, but for now, associative claims were still more prevalent framing brands green image and implying eco-friendly ideals.
Crowdsmashing: A content analysis of Brand New’s branding reviews and reader response • Robert Wertz, University of South Carolina • This study uses content analysis to examine the relationship between the presentation of new corporate visual identities and how people respond to them by evaluating one year of reviews on the design critique web site Brand New. Results indicate that several structural elements correlate with better reader response, while others seem to have no relationship.
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