Exploring Design Professionalism in Visual Information Structure of News Websites
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MAKING THE VOICE Exploring Design Professionalism in Visual Information Structure of News Websites Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 377 Yiyun Zha MAKING THE VOICE Exploring Design Professionalism in Visual Information Structure of News Websites Academic Dissertation To be publicly defended with the permission of the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland in the Esko ja Asko auditorium on 10 November 2018 at 12 noon Rovaniemi, Finland 2018 University of Lapland Faculty of Art and Design © Yiyun Zha, 2018 Layout and cover: Yiyun Zha Sales: Lapland University Press PL 8123 FI-96101 Rovaniemi Finland tel. +358 40 821 4242 [email protected] www.ulapland.fi/LUP Printed by Hansaprint Oy, Turenki 2018 Printed work: Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 377 ISBN 978-952-337-101-9 ISSN 0788-7604 PDF: Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 244 ISBN 978-952-337-102-6 ISSN 1796-6310 Abstract The emergence and proliferation of new media have challenged newspapers. Technological developments and changes in people’s reading habits regarding the news have led to the growing importance of the online reader experience in an era of increased competition among media companies. Newspaper circulation has been affected, and new ways of connecting with a mass audience in time and space have become necessary. Therefore, the biggest effect of the new media is the demanding requirements for creative workers. This research project seeks to fill this gap by focusing on the communication design innovations of the visual information structures of news websites. To make daily online newspapers possible, editorial processes and creative work are bound to follow highly structured rules, so that the workflow can be continuous and consistent. Thus, the main research question has arisen: “How is visual journalistic professionalism maintained and projected by the visual representation, given the opportunities and challenges posed by media convergence?” Finland is among the top countries that started online newspapers quite early, yet the implementation of new media techniques that have led to enhanced journalism has been overlooked, especially in Northern Finland. In recent times, there has been increasing concern about sustainability for online publishers in the new media landscape. The challenge, perhaps, is no longer to prove whether readers are passive objects in their engagement with the media but to argue that reader experiences should be improved through new modes of communication on news websites. More attention has been focused on the cultural differences regarding narratives in technological and social moments by explaining the interrelations of pictures, texts, genres, and interpretation. Using the ethnographic research methodologies of qualitative observation and quantitative analysis, it is possible to monitor trends in the development of newsroom cultures and visual journalists’ professional identities. The research consists of case studies of two Finnish newsrooms, representative of Northern Finland and Southern Finland, regarding the effect of organisational cultures on visual journalists’ daily routines and practices. An overview of marketing and journalists through interviews and surveys is also included to deepen our knowledge of the actors and factors that affect visual 5 journalism in the context of organisational cultures. The goals are to create awareness of design professionalism and to promote visualisation in online newspapers. Keywords: visual journalism, Finnish online newspapers, ethnographic research, design professionalism, news websites 6 Content 1. Introduction 1.1 Primary objective and scope . 13 1.2 Research question and targets . 15 1.3 Overview of methods . 19 1.4 Dissertation structure . 21 2. Professionalism Perspectives 2.1 Introduction . 25 2.2 Institutional perspective . 27 2.3 Organisational perspective . 29 2.4 Producer perspective . 34 2.5 Summary . 37 3. Visual Literacy Primer 3.1 Introduction . 41 3.2 The basic values . 43 3.2.1 Colour scheme . 44 3.2.2 Form . 46 3.2.3 Depth . 49 3.2.4 Movement . 50 3.2.5 Layout . 51 3.3 Theories of visual literacy . 54 3.3.1 Gestalt . 54 3.3.2 Semiotics . 56 3.3.3 Cognition . 60 3.4 Interactive information graphics . 62 3.4.1 Information visualisation and data visualisation . 63 3.4.2 Multifunction . 65 3.4.3 Multimodality . 68 3.5 Summary . 71 4. Editorial Creativity in News Websites . 77 ‘Editorial creativity in news websites: The three dimensions of hierarchy, sequence and consistency’, INTEGRATED MEDIA IN CHANGE, pp.43-62. 7 5. Shaping Information Structure of Graphics in Online Journalism . 99 ‘Shaping information structure of graphics in online journalism’, VISUAL THINKING, in publication. 6. The Role of a Visualist . 137 ‘The role of a visualist: Transforming stories in a newsroom’, TEXTUAL & VISUAL MEDIA, 10, pp.117-134. 7. Unpacking Communication Tensions in Visual Transmediation . 159 'Unpacking communication tensions in visual transmediation from print to digital papers', COMMUNICATION DESIGN: INTERDISCIPLINARY AND GRAPHIC DESIGN RESEARCH, vol.5(01-02), pp.165-182. 8. Conclusions 8.1 Lessons learned . 181 8.2 Further discussion and implications . 184 8.3 Reservations and limitations . 187 8.4 Final remarks . 188 References . 191 Acknowledgements . 201 总结(中文简介). 203 8 CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Primary objective and scope This doctoral dissertation investigates the visual information structure of news websites by considering visual journalistic ideology as digitised production and distribution technologies. Especially in an era when the circulation of print newspapers is shrinking, it is important to explore the demanding requirements for in-house creative workers in newsrooms. Together, the four articles comprising the dissertation illustrate how professional ideology informs visual practices for sustaining communication in journalistic institutions in an increasingly challenging media landscape. Finland is among the countries that started online newspapers quite early, and the per capita consumption of print media in Finland has long been one of the highest in the world. The newspaper industry model was built upon a structure of strong national and provincial papers, supplemented by smaller, more local papers (Picard & Grönlund, 2003). Thereafter, newspaper reading became a widespread activity among Finns, especially because of the home delivery system. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the largest media companies in Finland actively developed new forms of web-based publications during the second half of the 1990s, but the lack of revenue forced them to cut back on these activities (Lehtisaari, Karppinen, Harjuniemi, Grönlund, Lindén, Nieminen, & Viljakainen, 2012). It is partially because of a strong newspaper reading tradition (Nieminen, 2010) that new media practices have not been implemented and enhanced journalism has been overlooked, especially in Northern Finland. Newspaper reading was most popular among 35–64-year-olds, and Finnish newspaper readership in either the printed or digital format was about 88 percent (Sanomalehtien Liitto, 2016). The digitisation of information and news distribution suggests a positive outlook for the newspaper industry, while traditional newspapers1 are having trouble in coping in a society with omnipresent real-time media. Media convergence has arrived in Finnish newsrooms and has been a trend in the media industry (see for instance, Flew, 2017). It makes sense to distribute digital newspapers to households in Lapland because of the distribution difficulties in a relatively large but sparsely populated region. Lapland is the largest (92,661 km2) and northernmost province of Finland with a population density of 2.0, according to statistics from 2010 (cf. Björkroth 1 13 According to Merriam-Webster, it must be noted that in English, the ‘newspaper’ refers only to the print version or the company that publishes it. But I wish to separate newspaper and online newspaper, so the term ‘traditional newspapers’ here refers to printed newspapers, as opposed to online newspapers. & Grönlund, 2014). Newspapers, either national or regional, have encountered enormous challenges, such as budget limits and technological capabilities, in using the new platforms to serve consumer needs. Driven by the issues surrounding the current second wave of convergence (Lehtisaari et al., 2012), I examined in-house visual practitioners’ responses to the challenges of media convergence by looking at specific Finnish daily newspapers – Helsingin Sanomat and Lapin Kansa. Based on its circulation, Helsingin Sanomat is the biggest national newspaper in the South, while Lapin Kansa has the largest regional newsroom in the Lapland area, according to Lehtisaari et al. (2012). Rather than conducting a comparative study, I examined the new requirements for in-house visual journalists’ workflow and practices. This study is not a manual for visual journalists. Instead of proposing insightful guidelines for future visual journalists, it focuses on the ways in which these two newsrooms create, deliver and capture value through communication practices. In a broader sense, media convergence is a direct consequence of the Internet and the digitisation of all media content, as it brings together computing, communication and content (Flew, 2017). Its implications have been discussed in different areas, including technology, industry, media content and journalistic practices (cf. Storsul & Stuedahl, 2007). This study approaches media convergence from the