Visual Communication 2004 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
The Phenomenon of the Gros Canon • Kay Amert, Iowa • The paper examines the phenomenon of the gros canon, exploring the introduction of the first display roman and its rapid imitation and adaptation in France and abroad. Early iterations involved a six-way intersection of the ideas and work of Simon de Colines, Geofroy Tory, Robert Estienne, Antoine Augereau, Guillaume Le Bé, and Claude Garamond. Micro-analysis distinguishes the fonts and suggests their relation. The findings shed light on the cultural meaning of the gros canon in its own time.
Alphonse Marie Mucha: Posters, Panels and Comic Books? • Brandon Bollom and Shawn McKinney, University of Texas • Creative work, theories and techniques of early 20th Century Art Nouveau poster designer and commercial artist, Alphonse Mucha, continue to inform the creation of contemporary media products to a surprising extent. Interviews conducted with comic book artists reveal the extent of Mucha’s continuing impact on the development of an under-appreciated medium. Features identified as common to both commercial and more exalted forms of art encourage a reevaluation of Mucha’s historic significance.
Digital News Photography: Is the Historic Record a Blip on the Screen? • Howard Bossen, Michigan State University • Members of the National Press Photographers Association were surveyed to examine how the transition from film to digital cameras has affected the creation and preservation of photographic records. Results indicate that the diffusion of digital cameras into daily newspapers is virtually complete. Digital cameras are being used on almost all assignments. But while photographers may be shooting more with digital cameras, a lower proportion of these images are eventually archived, compared to 35mm film.
In the Age of the Instant: The Influence of the Digital Camera on Social Interaction between Subject and Photographer in Photojournalism • Dennis Dunleavy, San Jose State University • This research paper focuses on how visual routines related to social interactions between the photojournalist and subject are affected by the use of the digital camera when compared to prior experiences using a film camera. Goffman’s theory of “interaction ritual” is explored in this study as a way of understanding the influence of the digital camera on visual routines. A textual analysis of interviews with professionals collected over the past two years provides deeper insight into photojournalist are redefining and renegotiating visual routines in a digital age.
‘They Took It Down’: Picturing the Toppling of the Saddam Hussein Statue in National and International Newspapers • Shahira Fahmy, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Results of a visual content analysis examining the tone of coverage of the toppling of the Saddam’s statue event in 41 newspapers of 30 countries reveal a range of photographs ran in newspapers around the world. The study explores the relationship between several contextual variables and overall tone of visual depictions. Findings indicate the visual coverage in U.S. newspapers was more favorable than visual coverage of newspapers from coalition and non-coalition countries.
The Impact of Group Identity on the Spiral of Silence: An Examination of Freelance Photographers and Copyright Retention Issues • Vincent Filak and Thomas Price, Ball State University • We examined whether group-based identities would impact an individual’s desire to speak out more so than the fear of isolation as posited in the spiral of silence. Survey data collected from a group of freelance photographers (n=234) revealed that the latter stages of the spiral of silence were affirmed in the overall prediction of whether individuals would speak out on the issue of copyright infringement. However, group media predicted personal opinion and individuals were more likely to speak out on the issue when their group identity was made salient. Theoretical and professional implications are discussed.
Conventionalization in Newspaper and Magazine Feature Photography: A study of Winning Photographs in the Pictures of the Year International Competition • Keith Greenwood and C. Zoe Smith, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study examines conventionalization in content of newspaper and magazine feature photographs selected as winners in the annual Pictures of the Year International competition. A sample of winning images was created at five-year intervals from the 60 years of the competition and builds upon similar studies using sports feature photographs. The results show specific contents of the feature images have changed over time but the type of content exhibits a degree of conventionalization.
A Continuum of Difference: Race and Gender in Visual Depictions of Sporting Females • Marie Hardin, Susan Lynn and Kristie Walsdorf, Pennsylvania State University • This research integrates understanding of the media’s presentation of racial difference and sexual difference in sport by examining racialized images of females in general-interest women’s sport magazines. More than 4,000 photo images from four magazines were coded for relationships between racial and gendered depictions of athletes. The results of this research point to a continuum of racial and sexual difference in depictions of female athletes. Black/Masculine/Sport anchors one end and White/Feminine/Non-Sport anchors the other, reinforcing the idea that Black and White females in U.S. culture are defined by their differences. Non-Black minority women are virtually invisible and fall somewhere in between Blacks and Whites on the continuum. This continuum emphasizes both sexual and racial difference for females, locking them into hegemonic structures that reinforce their low status in U.S. culture.
Male Newspaper Photographers’ Perceptions of Women Photojournalists • Ken Heinen and Mark Popovich, Ball State University •This study is the third in a series that explored the attitudes of newspaper photojournalists toward the increasing number of women coming into the field. Q Methodology was used to understand how 16 male photojournalists felt about this phenomenon. Two factors were derived from the analysis and they were labeled as “Gender Blind” and “Gender Sensitive.” Both factors were similar in their beliefs that women and men were equal in stature in the field, which is an indication of how the stereotypical notions about women in photojournalism have changed in the past decade.
The Homogenized Imagery of Activist Organizations on the Internet • Linda Jean Kensicki, University of Minnesota •This research evaluates websites from non-deviant and deviant activist organizations to better understand the relationship between the type of advocacy group and the visual imagery used for self-representation. Seventeen of 21 variables measured for this study found no difference between non-deviant and deviant activist organizations’ visual representations on the Internet. These findings complicate the notion of a diverse communicative sphere and suggest a strong homogenizing effect could actually be occurring. Now that activists face the responsibility of representing themselves to potentially millions of viewers, it is suggested that self-imposed ‘normalizing’ restrictions on visual constructions of organizational identity may be inevitable.
Out of the Pool and into the Bed: Photographic Coverage during the Persian Gulf and Iraqi Wars in Three U.S. Newspapers • Paul Lester and Cynthia King, California State University at Fullterton • The United States has been engaged in military conflicts both honorable and questionable. Consequently, journalists have traveled to the front lines to produce stories and pictures both supportive and critical. A content analysis was conducted of images published in three US newspapers during the 1991 and 2003 wars with Iraq. The conclusion reveals that the U.S. military probably received the type of coverage it hoped when it installed the embedding program.
Myth and Photography: A Semiotic Analysis of Magazine Advertisements • Teruggi Page, University of Missouri at Columbia • This paper addresses the importance of visual media in society and in particular its rhetorical power within the context of women’s home magazines. The study examines three evocative “As I See It” advertisements, part of a rare fifteen-year long campaign for Kohler kitchen and bath products, featuring the surrealist photography of Hugh Kretschmer. A semiotic analysis suggests a transformative relationship between female models and the products, connoting referents of human commodification, self-alienation, sexual activity, and desire.
Alteration Tolerance: Gauging the Acceptability of Digital Manipulation Techniques in News Photographs • Lulu Rodriguez and Joel Geske, Iowa State University • The acceptability of digitally manipulated news photographs to a group of potential mass media practitioners and image handlers was examined by showing 130 college newspaper readers a series of 19 paired local news photographs. Each pair consists of the original image and its digitally altered version, and respondents were asked to rate the extent to which each alteration was acceptable to them. The results indicate that in general, manipulating photos that included people was more unacceptable than manipulating photos of objects. Respondents did accept some alterations, especially if these entail removing distracting elements or other ways by which the technical strengths of photographs can be enhanced.
News Photography and Reactions to Tragedy: How Journalistic Imagery Triggers Emotion and Influences Perceptions of Violence, Safety and Responsibility • Margaret A. Spratt, University of Washington • This research considers how a dramatic news photograph influences the way individuals react to and process information about vital social issues, especially issues dealing with trauma, crime, and violence among youth. Through an experimental approach, this project finds that readers respond differently to a print news analysis about youth and violence if a potentially disturbing photographic image is included – in this case, the dramatic Pulitzer-prize winning image of two students grieving at Columbine High School.
The Effect of Visual Continuity in Television News: The Filmic Code, the Journalistic Code and the News Viewer • Susan Zuckerman, Indiana University • Television journalists use visual continuity techniques to construct news reports. These techniques were originally employed to evoke realism in theatrical films and documentaries and became the preferred method of presenting visual material in television news. This study used an experiment to investigate the effect of visual continuity on perceived reality, credibility and affective reaction in TV news. It found no differences for reports constructed according to continuity guidelines than for those that violated the guidelines.
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