Visual Communication 2009 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
Assessing the Impact of Website Domain on End-user Evaluations of Web Page Aesthetics Using an Immediate Aesthetic Perception Technique • Jonathan Adams, The Florida State University; Forrest Doddington, Curiositî Design Solutions; Juliann Cortese, Florida State University • This study investigated the ‘immediate aesthetic impression’ method of quantifying the perception of attractiveness of website designs. This study is an extension of an existing line of research that investigates end-user’s “first impression” evaluations of web page attractiveness. The current research evaluates the potential influence of website domain on end-user perception of website visual aesthetics. A snowball technique was used to contact and enroll 184 participants.
The Analysis of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Photographs in the New York Times from 2001 to 2008 • Kanghui Baek, The University of Texas at Austin • This study examined photographs of 9/11 terrorist attacks that were published in the New York Times from 2001 to 2008. This study attempted how journalists have constructed a visually historic memory of the 9/11 as members of a culture of terror and to consider what the visual discourse might reveal about journalism in the United States, both at the time and in relation to lasting effects.
Labeling Participation: Exploring the Role of “I Voted” Stickers in Public Affairs Participation and Conversation on Election Day • Elizabeth Cohen, Georgia State University • The role of visual, social labels in public affairs engagement has been relatively neglected by research. Drawing from self-perception theory, this study predicted that identity variables would mediate the effect of wearing “I Voted” stickers on voters’ intended political involvement. The relationship between sticker display and interpersonal conversations was also investigated.
Why They Clash? The role of political posters in perpetuating the hegemonic structure of feudalism and sectarianism in Lebanon • Yasmine Dabbous, Louisiana State University; Khaled Nasser, Louisiana State University • To understand why clashes over political posters occur in Lebanon, this study analyzes the banners’ visual rhetoric and the characteristics of the posting practice. Taking the Beiruti street as an arena of collective assimilation, the paper argues that posters are more than pictures of political leaders. They promote the parties’ agendas and create a symbolic bonding between leaders and community. Reflections of collective identities, posters perpetuate a hegemonic feudal and sectarian system tearing Lebanon apart.
Self-trained and self-motivated: Newspaper photojournalists strive for quality during technological challenges • Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri; Scott Reinardy, University of Kansas • Photojournalists are often at the forefront of technological change in the newsroom. Newsroom efforts to increase Web production oftentimes hinge on the work of photographers, asking them to acquire skills to create multiple-image galleries, slideshows with audio and now video stories. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine newspaper photojournalists and their perceptions of job security, job quality, organizational trust, job satisfaction, morale and job commitment.
PHOTO FIXATION: Evaluating Web Site Conventions in Online News Slideshows • Lynette Holman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Laura Ruel, UNC-Chapel Hill • With the advent of more advanced software like Flash in 1996, and Soundslides in 2005, news entities have been able to produce their own slideshows with greater ease. The key question is which presentation conventions are most useful and effective in gaining and keeping the attention of the audience.
Visual Framing of the 2008 Anti-China/Olympics Demonstration/Riot: A Content Analysis • Ying Huang, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • A content analysis of 74 photos from New York Times and Washington Post on the 2008 anti-China/Olympics protest/riot revealed that the event was framed positively, and the positive portrayal was achieved through framing demonstrators as peaceful, and the police as violent and intimidating. More photos with pro-Tibet parties and fewer photos with pro-China parties magnified the scope of the anti-China/Olympics demonstrations. Further, the demonstration, suppression and confrontation frames appeared more frequently than other frames.
A visual typology of surveillance news: Tools, techniques, and implications for public understanding • J Kilker, UNLV • To examine visual framing of the complex but important topics of surveillance and civil rights, this project used specialized software and a card sort to develop a typology of images in stories from three media sources. Photography focused on technology, social, and policy-making aspects of surveillance; other image categories were products of surveillance and constructed imagery. Few images were of the artifact, explanatory, timeline, and visualization types that might help public understanding of this topic.
Photojournalism’s Dilemma: Being a Dispassionate Observer or a “Good Samaritan” • Yung Soo Kim, University of Kentucky • When documenting human tragedy, photojournalists frequently face serious ethical dilemmas in choosing between acting as dispassionate observers and “Good Samaritans.” Regarding these ethical dilemmas, this study asked whether readers adopt a situational ethics rationale when they assess the photojournalist’s decision to make a photograph of a person suffering severe trauma, or whether they use an absolutist or utilitarian rationale.
A Semiotic Analysis of the Media Representation of China by the Australian Public Broadcaster • Xiufang (Leah) Li, Miss • Due to the significance of visual communication and the gap of the previous works, semiotic approach is employed to examine how the ‘Foreign Correspondent’ current affairs show produced by the Australian Broadcasting Cooperation represents China. It explores what kinds of signs are used; how they respond to each other under what kinds of context; whether there are any embedded myths.
Too Wide to Please? A Comparison of Audience Responses to Widescreen vs. Pan and Scan Presentation • Kimberly Neuendorf, Cleveland State University; Evan Lieberman, cleveland state university; Lingli Ying, cleveland state university; Pete Lindmark, cleveland state university • Motivated by film industry concerns over “pan and scanning” and a dearth of empirical research on audiences, an experiment was conducted. 71 subjects viewed sequences from four films presented in either widescreen or pan and scan format. Results show (a) audiences split in their preferences, (b) differences in viewers’ perceptual outcomes between the formats, (c) other perceptual factors predict positive affect, (d) the specific film is highly predictive for both perceptual outcomes and positive affect.
Using Research Informed Design Methods Enhances Audience Understanding Among Visual Communications Students • Jennifer Palilonis, Ball State University • This case study focuses on two courses comprised of journalism graphics students during which research-informed design and development strategies were implemented as a learning exercise in order to provide visual communications students with a better sense of audience understanding related to their design work. Students who took a survey and the completion of each course that was intended to gauge their opinions about research-informed design activities were overwhelmingly positive about the experience.
Visual Surfaces and Epidermal Fantasies: The Gendered Body and Transnational Modernity in India • Radhika Parameswaran, Indiana University • This paper’s analysis of the body, beauty, and transnational modernity in India offers a semiotic critique of discourses on skin lightening and skin color in a wide range of visual images. The paper employs a cultural studies methodological approach in order to connect, disconnect, and juxtapose visual, textual, and ethnographic data and travel across national, cultural, and gendered spaces.
Animated Web political cartoonists of 2008 presidential campaign: Finding their voice? • Karon Speckman, University of Missouri • This paper examined whether professional political cartoonists were finding better ways to use visual and audio metaphors in animated cartoons to promote democratic debate of the 2008 presidential campaign. Using Lamb’s definition of satire and Medhurst and De Sousa’s taxonomy for cartoon classification, the study suggested that animated political cartoonists were still trying to find their satirical voice. Music, multiple frames and movement hampered satire by diluting condemnation messages.
Discriminating news-reading behavior and cognition using eye-tracking methodologies • Dave Stanton, University of Florida • Two-hundred readers were exposed to prototype newspapers and news websites in order to understand their reading behaviors and cognition. Prototypes varied the number and types of discrete visual structures to see what combinations would result in great information recognition. Eye-tracking equipment measured eye-movements as proxy measures for underlying cognitive processes. Initial findings support the notion that utilizing visual structures that are limited to small number of information categories generated great information recognition.
Effects of Hyperlink Density on News Web Page Reading: An Eyetracking Study • Laura Ruel, UNC-Chapel Hill; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Multiple theoretical models indicate that the complexity of Web pages affects how users interact with Web content. This study tracked participants’ eye movements to study the effects of hyperlink density on how users view, perceive, and recall content from online news Web sites. Results indicate that increased hyperlink density leads to an increase in number of stories viewed and alterations in link-reading patterns on the homepage itself, but has little effect on attitudinal measures.
Message Characteristics and Persuasion: The Mediating Role of Visual-Verbal Redundancy on the Effectiveness of Anti-smoking Messages • Jie Xu, Villanova University • This study investigated the mediating role of visual-verbal redundancy on the impact of three features (message sensation value, message cognition value, and smoking scenes) of anti-smoking messages on young adults’ ad processing. Using a within-subject experimental design, the mediation analyses indicated that V-V redundancy played a partially role mediating the relationship between MSV and message effectiveness. Also, it came between the other two message factors (MSV, and smoking scenes) and ad effectiveness as a complete mediator.
Correlating eye tracking with robust cognitive measures for visual representations in news • Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland • Eye-tracking studies to assess the effectiveness of visual elements continue to increase and “heat maps” suggest how readers attend to graphics, text, etc. To further test the relationships between eye movements, news stories and one’s understanding of content, this multi-method pilot (N = 20) analyzes eye measurements from two types of text and graphics in four stories about science and health.
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