DOCUMENT RESUME ED 401 571 CS 215 579 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (79th, Anaheim, CA, August 10-13, 1996). Visual Communication and Science and Health Communication Division. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 96 NOTE 257p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 215 568-580. Photographs in the Lester paper may not reproduce clearly. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Blacks; Broadcast Journalism; Environment; Interpersonal Communication; Journalism Research; Mass Media Effects; *Mass Media Role; *Mass Media Use; *News Media; *Newspapers; Photojournalism; Stereotypes; Technological Advancement IDENTIFIERS Digital Technology; *Health Communication; Multimedia Technology; Technology Integration; Television News; *Visual Communication ABSTRACT The Visual Communication and Science and Health Communication section of the proceedings contains the following 12 papers: "The Designers' Toolbox: Newsroom Experience and Ideal Characteristics of Newspaper Designers" (Wayne Wanta and Lauren Danner); "Patterned Image of the Homeless: Discourse Analysis of Television News Narrative" (In-Sung Whang and E.J. Min); "Navigating the Digital Universe: The Use of Space in the Design of Multimedia" (Jean Trumbo); "African American Pictorial Coverage in Four U.S. Newspapers" (Paul Martin Lester and Randy Miller); "Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media: A Pedagogical Discussion" (Paul Martin Lester); "How Media Use and Demographics Affect Satisfaction with the Appearance of Community Newspapers" (John Mark King); "Television News Images of the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Fear of Terrorism" (Claudette Guzan Artwick); "'American Gothic' and the Impact of Digital Video Technology on the Visual Communication of Television" (Edward J. Fink); "Environmental Coverage Priorities: A Michigan Newspaper Comparison" (Erik Bean and Jim Detjen); "Domestic and International Coverage of AIDS/HIV by the 'New York Times,''Los Angeles Times,' and 'USA Today': 1990-1994" (Nilanjana Roy Bardhan); "The Quality of Interactive Computer Use among HIV-Infected Individuals" (Paul Smaglik and others); and "Mass Media, Interpersonal Communication, and Real-Life Factors in Risk Perception at Personal and Societal Levels" (Eunkyung Park and others). Individual papers contain references. (CR) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made it from the original document. *********************************************************************** Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (79th, Anaheim, CA, August 10-13, 1996). Visual Communication and Science & Health Communication Division. 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BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 The Designers' Toolbox: Newsroom Experience And Ideal Characteristics of Newspaper Designers By Wayne Wanta and Lauren Danner School of Journalism and Communication 1275 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1275 541-346-3752 email: [email protected] ** Paper presented to the Visual Communication Division at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Anaheim, Calif., August, 1996 ** Wanta is an associate professor and Danner a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. 3 The Designers' Toolbox: Newsroom Experience And Ideal Characteristics of Newspaper Designers Abstract A survey of newspaper editors revealed that the experience levels for Page 1 designers were very similar to that of copy desk chiefs and substantially higher than that of a typical copy editor. Editors also felt that page designers needed to possess general newsroom skills, such as possessing solid news judgment, knowledge of design techniques and knowledge of grammar/style. Technical qualifications, such as computer skills, were somewhat less important. General education background was least important. 4 The Designers' Toolbox: Newsroom Experience And Ideal Characteristics of Newspaper Designers As newspapers continue to change in order to meet economic and consumer demands, so too do the duties of people who work for them. This is abundantly clear in the case of people who work on the visual aspects of the newspaper -- those who do design, layout, graphics, display and pagination. These "visual" employees go by a variety of titles, but they have become an increasingly important,and integral, part of the newspaper staff. Largely regarded as a reaction to the success of the highly visual USA Today, the emphasis on visual elements has sparked a "design revolution" Utt and Pasternack (1989). Little is known, however, about the journalists in charge of designing the nation's newspapers. As design has been taking on greater importance in recent years, research examining designers and characteristics of successfuldesigners deserves attention. The present study is based on survey responses from a random sample of daily newspapers editors about the person who typically designs their Page 1 and about the editors' attitudes regarding the 'characteristics necessary for a successful page designer to possess. Three areas are addressed here. First, we asked editors the years of experience that their normal Page 1 designer has. The designers' experience was compared with the work experience of the newspapers' copy desk chiefs and their typical copy editor. Thus, we were interested in examining whether newspapers are utilizing journalists who are inexperienced relative to other news desk employees, or if Page 1 designers are seasoned newsroom veterans who, through their experience, have earned the important job of deciding how to display the day's news. 1 Second, and more pertinent to mass communication educators, is the question of what characteristics newspaper editors look for in their pagedesigners. Do page designers need to know basic newsroom operation skills, such as grammar and style? Or do page designers need to have complex and advanced expertise in such areas as computer pagination systems? Third, we examined whether the designers' experience levels and the editors' priorities differed across circulation groups. Newspapers with smaller circulations, and correspondingly fewer resources, likely will differ from larger papers inthese two areas. Designing newspaper pages is an important, but overlooked, job in the nation's newsrooms. Garcia (1993) notes that design, along with writing and editing, is one of the three basic duties in the "WED" newsroom operation. Moreover, it is the designers' job to "make the page pleasing to the eye, and thus entice the reader to sample the editorial product" (Barnhurst, 1991, p.109). In addition, how stories are packaged can give readers important cues as to the relative importance of certain issues (Wanta, 1988). Visuals also attract readers to an accompanying story (Baxter, Quarles and Kosak, 1978) and awayfrom unrelated stories (Wanta and Roark, 1994). Understanding who these page designers are and their required skills, then, may provide insight into an integral partof the newspaper industry. Previous research Studies of newspaper design are limited, but those that exist have focused on the nature of design, how design has changed, and who designers are. In her study of design desks, for example, Auman (1994) noted that "[d]esign desks are at the heart of an industry in great flux. ...There are no well-marked road maps for [newspaper] managers to follow..." (p.128). This flux may be most evident 2 in the various terms used to describe those who work on the visual elements of the newspaper; they are variously called page designers, graphics managers/designers/ editors/directors, layout editors, artists, art directors, display designers/editors, and the like. Auman defined the design desk as "one or more people who design pages exclusively as a small department separate from other desks that gather the news and edit copy," and included layout, presentation and display desks in her description. Miller (1992), meanwhile, described design as "the integration of verbal and visual elements into a coherent whole." He suggested that design offers a "new way to think about news and the people we are trying to sell it to. Design can help by forcing us to consider the nature of the information we are gathering, the audiences for it, and an appropriate means of presenting it to them." Given that the 1991 Poynter Institute "Eyes on the News" survey found that readers processed 80 percent of the artwork and 75 percent of the photographs in newspapers (Garcia and Stark, 1991, p. 70), the burgeoning interest in design appears well-founded. The Society of Newspaper Designers' membership roster also speaks to the increased emphasis on design: from 22 people in 1979, the rolls swelled