Visual Communication 2015 Abstracts
Appearance and Explanation: Advancements in the Evaluation of Information Graphics • Spencer Barnes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Laura Ruel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The research presented in this paper offers new approaches to evaluate the efficacy of information graphics by examining how appearance and explanation can be quantified and analyzed via three novel measures: aesthetic value, learning efficiency, and performance efficiency. Little research has been conducted to determine the implications of these qualities. Findings suggest that information processing predicates explanation and that explanation makes slightly more of a contribution to one’s interaction with an information graphic than appearance.
Images of Arab Spring Conflict: A Content Analysis of Five pan-Arab TV News Networks • Michael Bruce, University of Alabama • Guided by framing theory a quantitative content analysis was conducted on news programming from five transnational satellite news channels that broadcast to/from the Arab world—Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Al Arabiya, Alhurra, and BBC Arabic—to determine if differences exist between the networks, and between two dimensions of a network taxonomy—western and liberal commercial—in how Arab Spring conflict and violence was visually framed. Results show that the liberal commercial networks utilized more conflict visuals than western networks. Among the individual networks, Al Jazeera aired the most violent Arab Spring images. However, the majority of Arab Spring visuals from all the networks were conflict free, suggesting that Arab media is not as violent as anecdotal evidence suggests.
Place, space, and time: Elite media as visual gatekeepers in the formation of iconic imagery • Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; Daniel Morrison, University of Oregon • Media gatekeeping has been a critical component in the formation of iconic imagery. This research examines differences between identification of iconic imagery when comparing a prompt of commonly used elite media images to an unprompted response in effort to ascertain which images are, in fact, considered most iconic by audiences. Findings indicate that the democratization of the news via social media has had the unanticipated effect of rescinding the uniformity of collective visual consciousness and the traditional formation of iconic imagery.
Access Denied: Exploring the relationship between the Obama administration’s access policies and visual journalists’ ability to function as independent watchdogs • Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; Erin Coyle, Louisiana State University • The Obama administration has continued to restrict media access, specifically for visual journalists, to presidential events, instead offering White House captured photos, best described as visual news releases, which undermines the ability of the press to gather information and to report news. Through surveys and in-depth interviews with WHNPA members, findings provide evidence that visuals journalists understand their watchdog role and that White House practices interfere with visual journalists’ ability to perform this critical function.
Image, Race, and Rhetoric: The Contention for Visual Space on Twitter • Michael DiBari, Hampton University; Edgar Simpson • This study examines photographs associated with the Twitter hashtag ifiweregunneddown through the lens of visual rhetoric, concluding that social media users engaged in a protest against mainstream media by using images of themselves to reassert their identity. Data was examined through the theory of the public sphere, suggesting that societal members use information available to them to debate and determine meaning. This study also borrows theory from geography and the concept of contested space.
Finding Photojournalism: The Search for Photojournalism’s Birth as a Term and Practice • Timothy Roy Gleason, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • The history of photojournalism is wealthy in tales of glory but poor in the understanding of how photojournalism emerged as a term and set of practices. This paper tracks the language used to describe pre-photojournalism through the beginnings of photojournalism, roughly marked as during WWII. Pictorial journalism and press photography can be viewed as photojournalism’s predecessors. Photojournalism, as a term, appeared as late as 1938, but it wouldn’t come into popular usage for decades.
Visually framing press freedom and responsibility of a massacre: Photographic and graphic images in Charlie Hedbo’s newspaper front pages around the world • Kristin Gustafson, University of Washington Bothell; Linda Jean Kenix • This research examines 441 front-page images published in 367 newspapers on the day following the shooting in Paris of twelve people at or near the satirical magazine to understand how mainstream media visually frame responsibility for the Charlie Hedbo massacre and how visual framing coalesced to represent collective narratives about press freedom. Through a collaborative visual analysis, this study attempts to understand how the selected visual frames worked to communicate the causes, effects, and responses to the massacre and also to press freedom—an ideological construct that that news media had a vested interest in advancing.
The State of the Scholarship: Exploring the theories and methods used in visual communication journals • Matthew Haught, University of Memphis; David Morris II, University of Memphis • As the field of visual communication continues to grow in academic program, its scholarship also has developed. Once rooted in communication, psychology, anthropology, and sociology, visual communication itself has emerged as an independent academic discipline. Yet, its research tends to draw on theories and methods from its roots. Using a content analysis of two leading visual communication journals, Visual Communication Quarterly and Visual Communication, this study compares the theoretical perspectives, research topics, methodologies, data collection and visual data used in visual communication research. It concludes that, overwhelmingly, photography and graphic design research dominate the visual communication landscape.
On their Own: Freelance Photojournalists in Conflict Zones • Pinar Istek • The recession increased media organizations’ reliance on freelance photojournalists, while affecting the support they receive covering conflict zones. This study investigates freelance and staff photojournalists’ perception of support they receive and whether that affects content produced. Grounded theory was used to analyze nine in-depth interviews with freelance and staff photojournalists. The research found that freelance photojournalists receive less than sufficient support. Both believe that support systems improve their coverage in conflict zones.
Visual Expressions of Black Identity: African American & African Museum Web sites • Melissa Johnson, NC State University; Keon Pettiway, NC State University • This qualitative and quantitative content analysis examines 46 African American museum Web sites. Described are images, sound, and visual dynamism. Merelman’s Cultural Projection theory serves as a foundation to explain how the African- and African American-centric organizations express Black and organizational identities. The findings add to the literature on counter-stereotypes, provide suggestions regarding methodological challenges of digital content analysis, and offer ideas for Web designers and content providers.
What Does Moral Look Like? A Second-Level Agenda-Setting Study Linking Nonverbal Behavior to Character Traits in Politicians • Danielle Kilgo; Trent Boulter; Renita Coleman • The study explores which nonverbal behaviors – specific facial expressions, and gestures – lead viewers to attribute specific character traits to political figures, building on the substantive dimension of second-level agenda setting theory. Findings include direct eye contact, shaking hands, and smiling lead to inferences of caring, and crossed arms make people think the person is uncaring. Shaking hands and raised, open arms led to inferences of competence. Honesty was only linked to raised or open arms.
Child Survivors of Sandy Hook: An Analysis of Front-Page Photographs in U.S Newspapers • Eun Jeong Lee, The University of Texas at Austin • This study examined how U.S. newspapers visually framed images of child survivors on their newspaper front-page. A content analysis of 646 photographs from U.S newspapers suggests that human interest framing dominated the news coverage by emphasizing graphic images of human suffering of tragic incident. The results also showed that U.S. newspapers were more likely to feature negative emotional portrayals of child survivors during the news coverage.
Visual Frames of War Photojournalism, Empathy, and Information Seeking • Jennifer Midberry, Temple University • This between-subjects experiment examines how people respond affectively and behaviorally to images that depict the human cost of war compared to those of militarism. More specifically, this paper investigates whether photos with three types of human-cost-of-war visual frames and with one militarism visual frame evoke differing levels of empathy, distress, and information seeking behavior in participants. The findings help expand our understanding about the way audiences emotionally process and react to conflict photos and they have implications for how photojournalists and photo editors might present audiences with images of war that will engage individuals rather than overwhelm them.
Al-Sabeen Square suicide attack remediated: A visual analysis of propaganda of the deed in Yemeni Press • Natalia Mielczarek • This project engages iconographic tracking and visual rhetorical analysis to analyze the remediation and recontextualization of terrorist-produced images in Yemeni press to cover one of the deadliest suicide bombings in recent history. The study offers the concept of participatory jihad, which explores the use of terrorist-produced photographs as user-generated content in participatory culture and illuminates the ongoing symbiotic relationship between mainstream media and modern-day terrorists as communicators.
Citizen Framing of Ferguson in 2015: Visual Representations on Twitter and Tumblr • Ceeon Smith, Arizona State University; Mia Moody-Ramirez, Baylor University; LIllie Fears; Randle Brenda • This content analysis of the photos and text in Tumblr posts and tweets following Michael Brown’s death in 2014 indicates the most salient themes characterized Ferguson as a war zone, Middle East-like and out of control. Citizens on both Twitter and Tumblr used similar photos and text to frame both Brown and Ferguson in a certain manner. Framing of Michael Brown, on the other hand, was dichotomous in nature, depicting him either as a hero or a villain. The most telling visual frames that emerged were the photos that included protestors engulfed in pillars of smoke, holding signs containing various messages or holding their arms in the air as a symbol of surrender. Comparing these two types of platforms provided the means for characterizing citizen framing of the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, Mo.
Visual framing of global sporting events in world newspapers: A comparison study • David Morris II, University of Memphis • Newspapers have long covered worldwide sporting events; however, their coverage can reflect multiple viewpoints on the events. Using a content analysis of photography and design elements, this study considers the nationalist and global coverage frames used by newspapers worldwide for the 2014 Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup. It found that newspapers use different visual tools to cover the sporting events, with photographs being the most prominent. Countries also tended to cover the events through a national perspective. Only Brazilian newspapers in the coverage of the FIFA World Cup provided extensive non-national coverage of the events. This study advances the understanding of newspapers as a means of building national identity, as sports and coverage of sports help to show pride in one’s own nation.
Hashing out the normal and the deviant: A visual stereotyping study of the stigmatization of marijuana use before and after recreational legalization in Colorado • Tara Marie Mortensen; Aimei Yang, University of Southern California; Anan Wan, University of South Carolina • In a development that Goffman (1963) refers to as normification, marijuana use in the United States is becoming more mainstream. Despite moves toward normification, the lingering stereotype of the marijuana user in the United States for many is that of the lazy, often-minority, lethargic and unkempt unmotivated young person; the pleasure-seeking, rebellious and criminal bum (Haines-Saah, et al., 2014; Lee, 2012; Simmons, 1965). This study was interested in examining visual stereotypes of marijuana users in the news, and whether normification – as measured by legalization in Colorado – had an effect on the presence of stereotypes. A quantitative content analysis of 458 visuals in 10 different media outlets of different political persuasions both six months prior to and six months proceeding legalization in Colorado was undertaken. Results show that while normification had little effect on stereotyping, political disposition of the news outlets was associated with different levels of stereotyping.
How The New York Times Uses Infographics and Data Visualizations Across News Sections and to Foster Engagement • Yee Man (Margaret) Ng, The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism • This study assessed the differences in the use of infographics and visualizations across news sections and examined what built-in features tend to use to foster audience engagement. Adopting Segel and Heer (2010) narrative visualization categories, a content analysis and two in-depth case studies were conducted to analyze common design components employed on infographics and visualizations across news sections at the New York Times’ websites in 2012. It was found that the largest portion of the graphics produced was found in business and the economy sections. Graphs, such as line charts and bar charts, were the most popular design component. Author-driven and random access were the main approaches of narrative across all new sections. Three NYT editors were interviewed to provide a journalistic perspective on how infographics and visualizations could help audience engagement. They revealed that it was harder for editors and reporters to come up with unique features for hard news due to tighter deadlines. In contrast, visualizations for feature news were usually planned ahead of time and allowed sufficient time to experiment with interactive features. The main design principles included clear content, unique presentation and engaging exploration to readers. Also, interactive visualizations that offered readers an opportunity to figure out data related to them personally could improve audience engagement.
Anti-Smoking Ads and College Students • Sung Eun Park • College students account for a considerable number of smokers in the United States, and their consumption of cigarettes remains at high levels. Consequently, testing important ad components (i.e., image and message) is worthwhile. While the prevalence of celebrity spokespersons is salient in commercial product ads, celebrities received relatively little attention in the field of health communication. The study attempts to identify their influence on advertising effects: ad image likeability, ad helpfulness, and ad overall likeability.
Using Infographics in Television News: Effects of TV Graphics on Information Recall about Sexually Transmitted Diseases among Young Americans • Ivanka Pjesivac, University of Georgia; Nicholas Geidner, University of Tennessee; Laura Miller, University of Tennessee • This experimental study (N=113) examined the effects of the visual presentations of data in television news on young Americans’ recall of information about sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the roles of individual characteristics in this process. The results show that individuals who saw either a tabular or graphical presentation of information about sexually transmitted diseases better remembered that information than those who only heard the anchor describe the numbers. Our study further found that participants high in quantitative media literacy recalled significantly more information than participants low in quantitative media literacy, but this individual characteristic did not moderate the relationship between style of information presentation and recall. Spatial thinking did not significantly predict information recall, although the effect went into the right direction. The results support the assumptions of Dual-Coding theory of information processing and Limited Capacity Model of mediated message processing. It also represents the first step in linking individual differences to the processing of information from infographics from television news.
Twitter Images in Middle Eastern Higher Education: A Visual Content Analysis Approach • Husain Ebrahim, University of Kansas; Hyunjin Seo, University of Kansas • We conducted a content analysis of 537 Twitter images posted by Kuwait University, King Saud University of Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates University to examine how public universities in the Middle East use social media to promote their agenda. Specifically, we analyzed prominent topics and democracy frames featured in the Twitter images as well as structural characteristics of those images. In terms of image type, most Twitter images posted by the three universities were still photos. Our analysis shows significant differences between the three universities in terms of the most prominent topic category and democracy frame. A significantly higher proportion of the Twitter images posted by Kuwait University featured educational and political topic categories. In comparison, the social topic category was the most prominent in the Twitter images posted by King Saud University and United Arab Emirates University. Our analysis of democracy frames shows that these public universities often used their social media channels to promote the respective government’s political agenda. These and other findings are discussed in the context of the rising social media use in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the role of visuals in the society.
Feeling the disaster: An interpretive visual analysis of emotive television reportage following Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan • Chiaoning Su, Temple University • The televisual medium is particularly keyed into the emotional narratives of disaster. Using an interpretive visual analysis to examine the first week of broadcast news coverage of Typhoon Morakot—one of the worst natural disasters in Taiwanese history, this article found a series of television techniques, such as interruption of commercials, live broadcasting, dramatization, and cinematic vignettes, have been used to convey and elicit the feelings of horror, grief, anger, pride, and compassion from the audience. While many media critics reduce such media construction to evidence of weepy journalism and therapy news, which exploits public emotions to boost ratings, this article explores the cultural function of emotive disaster coverage. In fact, such coverage united a traumatized society and allowed journalists to establish their cultural authority through emotional storytelling .
Putting pictures in our heads: Second-level agenda setting of news stories and photos • Carolyn Yaschur, Augustana College • Using an experimental design, this research explores the second-level agenda-setting effects of news stories and photographs independent of each other. The tone of both stories and photos influences public opinion on an affective level. Negative stories and photographs elicited negative opinions and attitudes about the issues presented, while positive responses resulted from both positive stories and photographs. Additionally, need for orientation was not found to be a predictor of second-level agenda-setting effects.
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