Looking beyond the picture. The impact of photo news factors in press photographs of dramatic events on recipients.
Roos Eversdijk ANR: 949053
Master's Thesis Communication and Information Sciences Specialization Data Journalism
Faculty of Humanities Tilburg University, Tilburg
Supervisor: R. Koolen Second Reader: E. Keuleers
August 2017
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Abstract
News value theory posits that journalists and news broadcasters select news worth publishing by means of so called news factors (Galtung & Ruge, 1965). These factors, in turn, have been proven to have an effect on recipients. Research by Rössler et al. (2011) has shown that news value theory can be extrapolated to press photographs and that the photo news factors present in these photograph also affect the viewer. However, barring the study by Rössler et al., previous research has merely regarded ‘press photos’ as another news factors without looking at specific factors within these photos. This lack of studies leaves room for expansion of existing theory and further investigation of news factors in various photographic areas. The purpose of this study therefore is to investigate the effect of photo news factors connected with dramatic events (violence/aggression, emotion, vulnerable child, suffering) in press photographs on the intensity of attention and emotionalization of recipients.
To measure whether a stronger representation of a certain photo news factor leads to higher scores on intensity of attention and emotionalization, an online experiment was created. In a pre-test, 80 respondents scored 123 pictures on the presence of the four photo news factors. These pictures were actual press photographs taken from renowned broadcasters websites. In the main experiment, recipients’ reaction to these photographs were measured with intensity of attention and emotionalization. The scores on each photo news factor per picture served as predictors for the dependent variables in a total of eight regression analyses.
The findings of the study are divergent. Both violence/aggression and suffering in press photographs are predictors of greater intensity of attention and greater emotionalization in recipients. In contrast to findings of Rössler et al. (2011), emotion does not lead to increased intensity of attention or emotionalization. More surprisingly, a counter effect is visible. Child vulnerability does not produce any significant effects. This study, therefore, provides a valuable addition to photo news factor research and to the journalistic profession, but leaves open room for expansion and improvement as well.
Keywords: News Value theory, photo news factors, press photographs, intensity of attention, emotionalization.
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Table of contents
1. Introduction ...... 4 2. Theoretical framework ...... 6 2.1 Dramatic events ...... 6 2.2 News value theory ...... 7 2.3 Impact of pictures ...... 8 2.4 Embedding photo attributes in theory ...... 9 2.5 Photo news factors ...... 12 2. Research question and hypotheses ...... 15 3.1 Research question ...... 15 3.2 Hypotheses ...... 16 4. Method ...... 16 4.1 Pretest ...... 17 4.2 Experiment ...... 18 4.2.1 Material ...... 18 4.2.2 Instrumentation ...... 19 4.2.3 Participants ...... 22 4.2.4 Procedure ...... 22 4.2.5 Design and statistical analyses ...... 23 5. Results ...... 23 5.1 Intensity of attention ...... 23 5.1.1 Evaluation ...... 23 5.1.2 Interest in subsequent article ...... 24 5.1.3 Recall ...... 25 5.2 Emotionalization...... 26 5.3 Interaction effects with issue relevance ...... 27 6. Conclusions ...... 27
7. Dicussion ...... 28 7.1 Results for suffering and violence/aggression ...... 29 7.2 Surprising results for emotion ...... 30 7.3 No effects of child vulnerability ...... 31 7.4 Interaction with issue relevance ...... 32 8. Limitations and future research ...... 33
9. Practical implications ...... 35
References ...... 36 Appendices ...... 41 Appendix 1 – Stimulus example ...... 41 Appendix 2– Regression tables of interaction effects ...... 42
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1. Introduction
It is widely believed that “images can stir emotions and foster public outcry like no other means of expression” (Zillman, Gibson, & Sargent, 1999). When photography was first integrated in the world of journalism, at the end of the nineteenth century, it opened up a world of possibilities for news producers.
They discovered that adding pictures to press reports had a positive effect on appeal, circulation, and a wider interest in existing publications (Gross, Katz, & Ruby, 2003). Since that first inception, photography has been an integral part of the journalistic profession.
In September 2015, a photograph appeared on social media that went viral instantly. It was a picture taken by press photographer Nilüfer Demir of the lifeless body of three year old Aylan Kurdi, washed up on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey (Figure 1). At that time, the war in Syria had been going on for years already, with the lives of half of the population at risk because of violence and lack of food (Morabia &
Benjamin, 2015). Yet, this photo served as an imperative eye-opener for the European population, and the great social turmoil surrounding the refugee crisis initiated from this picture (Battjes, et al., 2015). As such,
Aylan Kurdi became a totem for the Syrian war and this picture will likely be remembered by most of the
Europeans who saw it. What this calls into question, is why? What was the reason that this particular photograph moved so many people? Aylan Kurdi was by no means the first, nor the last child to drown on their way to Europe. What particular attributes were responsible for the impact this photo caused?
Figure 1 Press photo of Aylan Kurdi on a Turkish beach by photographer Nilüfer Demir (2015). 4
Violence, aggression, loss, suffering are all topics frequently covered in newspapers around the world (Taylor, 1998; Singletary & Lamb, 1984), often, if not always, accompanied by photos. Most of these topics appear in news reports of dramatic events, such as wars, humanitarian disasters, terrorism and natural disasters. It is these kinds of events that we are naturally drawn towards and fascinated by (Rozario,
2007) as well as the kind of events that often produce the most interesting press photos. To illustrate: an analysis of winning news photos showed that 81% of these involved accidents, disasters, crime and violence
(Singletary & Lamb, 1984). However, not all of these photos evoke the same kind of emotion, the same kind of attention as, for instance, the image of little Ayan Kurdi on the shores of Bodrum.
Research has demonstrated various effects of the use of images on recipients’ intensity of attention
(Bruder, 2007; Cope, et al., n.d.; Zillmann, Knobloch, & Yu, 2001; Zillman, Gibson, & Sargent, 1999). Rössler,
Bomhoff, Haschke, Kersten and Müller (2011) were the first to take a closer look at what specific attributes of press photographs can explain intensity of attention for and emotionalization by photo’s. They conceptualized these attributes as ‘photo news factors’, a term originating in news value research, where news factors were first defined as criteria journalists use to determine which news topics are newsworthy and will be published. News value research has played a significant role in the understanding of the process of news selection. “Unlike the gatekeeping approach, news value research does not focus on the personal or institutional characteristics of the journalists but on the content characteristics of the mass media, taking the media coverage as a result of the selection process” (Eilders, 1996, p. 1). Scholars such as Galtung and
Ruge (1965) have defined catalogues of these event characteristics that serve as selection criteria for editors when selecting news to be published in media outlets. Examples of news factors appearing in these catalogues include: unexpectedness, proximity, personification, damage and, as previously mentioned, aggression and violence (Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Chang & Lee, 1992; Staab, 1990; Harcup & O'Neill, 2001)
Traditionally, research on news values such as discussed above, primarily revolves around the selection process by editors and journalists, and on textual news. Few scholars, such as Eilders (1996;
2006), Rössler, Haschke and Marquart (2010) and Rössler et al. (2011), have approached news value theory from a recipient perspective and only the latter two studies have looked at news values in relation to photographs and recipients both. As mentioned before, Rössler et al. demonstrated that news value theory can be extended to press photographs and that photo news factors can be used to measure the intensity of attention and degree of emotionalization that a press photograph generates with viewers. In their 2011 study, Rössler et al. have created a process model justifying the extrapolation of news values to photographs
5 and recipients, rather than just text and news selectors. Their model was based on the dynamic- transactional approach first presented by Früh and Schönbach in 1982. The study and process model by
Rössler et al. have shown that 1) news factors can be applied to photographs and its effect on recipients can be measured, and 2) photo news factors do indeed have an effect on recipients. However, the fact that these figures are only based on one study, leaves room for expansion of their concept and for further investigation of news factors in various photographic areas.
The current study, therefore, builds on the findings by Rössler et al. (2011) and extends them by focusing solely on the domain of dramatic events. This study will look at the photo news factors that fit photographs accompanying media reports on these kinds of events, the factors being violence/aggression, emotion, suffering and child vulnerability. These photo news factors are based on existing news value catalogues (Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Chang & Lee, 1992; Staab, 1990; Harcup & O'Neill, 2001) as well as claims made in other literature that prove their relevance to the domain of dramatic events (Kleinman & Kleinman,
1996; Petersen, 2011). The question that this study seeks to answer reads: What is the effect of photo news factors connected with dramatic events in press photographs of dramatic events on intensity of attention and emotionalization of recipients?
2. Theoretical framework
2.1 Dramatic events
A large part of our daily news revolves around dramatic events such as wars, humanitarian disasters, terrorism and natural disasters, most or all of them negative in nature. Photographs of these events are often compelling and make up the largest part of photo catalogues such as World Press Photo
(Singletary & Lamb, 1984). It is also the kind of events that often require, or ought to receive, more attention from the public. Although sensational is a rather negative term when it comes to news, and few serious newspapers like to be associated with it, as sensationalism does attract a wide audience (Davis & McLeod,
2003). Humans are automatically drawn towards sensational news. Extending this to dramatic events, which are not necessarily purposefully depicted as sensational but tend to fall under the characterizing terms as used by Davis and McLeod, humans are likely attracted to news reports on dramatic events as well.
Kevin Rozario (2007) wrote an entire book exploring the role disasters play in our daily lives and why we are so fascinated by, drawn towards and involved with calamity and disaster. He challenges the widespread idea that it is simply the media turning disaster into sensationalism and, thus, entertainment, by pointing
6 out that humans have some kind of elemental fascination with calamity. Some explanations for this elemental fascination come from the field of evolutionary psychology and psychoanalytic philosophy
(Palmer & Palmer, 2002), where scholars have argued that humans are adapted to pay special attention to unusual or threatening events happening around them. In addition, evidence from studies like Davis and
McLeod (2003) and Rozario (2007) show that there is a certain attraction towards dramatic events which results in an impact on the recipient.
2.2 News value theory
Our intrinsic fascination with disaster is no secret and it is plausible to infer that it is for this reason that journalists choose to report dramatic events en masse: a wide interest in a topic makes an item newsworthy.
Numerous studies have explored this selection of news stories by editors and journalists, and the factors that play a role in this selection and in making news items newsworthy. The most prominent approach probably remains news value theory (Eilders, 2006). News value theory suggests that journalists and editors select news on the ground of its newsworthiness. News values, also uniformly referred to as ‘news factors’, are widely regarded as selection criteria both for the event itself to be reported, and for the story that is written about it, as it competes with other news stories for publication in the restricted amount of space in mass media outlets (Caple & Bednarek, 2013).
Although news values theory can be traced back as far as 1922, when Lippmann discussed particular event characteristics granting an event ‘news value’ and increasing its chances of being published as a news item (Eilders, 1996), the concept was first systematized by Galtung and Ruge (1965). Their study has long been considered the most influential paper on news value theory, its central question being: How do events become ‘news’? Their study produced a structured catalogue of twelve news values: frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite nations and elite people, personification, and reference to something negative, where the latter four factors are considered culture-bound in a sense that they only apply to the north-western corner of the world (Galtung & Ruge, 1965). However, Galtung and Ruge noted “no claim is made for completeness in the list of factors or ‘deductions’” (Harcup & O'Neill, 2001), suggesting that there is room for improvement, alterations and additions to their original catalogue of news values. Ever since, numerous scholars have tackled the subject of news value theory and have produced their own catalogues (Chang & Lee, 1992; Staab,
1990; Harcup & O'Neill, 2001), with various factors overlapping.
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Research on news values is traditionally orientated towards the broadcaster and news selection, rather than the recipient. However, Galtung and Ruge (1965) did provide an explanation for the impact of news factors with reference to the psychology of reception, stressing the assumption that journalists and media users select information according to the same principles. Defined in this way, news factors are not exclusively applicable to journalists, but are regarded as general human selection criteria. The amount of news items available to recipients is enormous resulting in recipients applying selection criteria as well, to determine which news items they want to read. Following from this reasoning, the concept of news factors can be applied to journalists and recipients alike (Eilders, 1996).
A study by Lee (2009) is based on the assumption that selection by means of news factors also applies to recipients. The study showed a two-fold effect of news values on audience attention: an indirect effect through the amount of media coverage on the subject and a direct effect without the influence of media attention. In other words, Lee found that the amount of attention a news item with particular news values receives, can be partly explained by the amount of media coverage granted. Yet, more interesting is the direct effect which demonstrated that, even without taking into the account the degree to which a topic appears in the media, news values have an effect on audience attention. This finding is evidence for the idea that news items have an influence on people through news values, and that this influence cannot merely be ascribed to the amount of attention the item is given by the media.
2.3 Impact of pictures
Relatively recent research has begun the expansion of news value theory to the relevance of images.
McGregor (2002) argued for four additional news values on top of the ones previously defined in various news catalogues (Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Chang & Lee, 1992; Staab, 1990; Harcup & O'Neill, 2001). These were formulated to reflect the “dramatic, profound changes to the mediascape”(p. 1), one example of which was ‘visualness’: the ability of journalists to obtain photos of an event. Likewise, Harcup and O’Neill (2001) introduced the news value ‘picture opportunities’ as a relevant selection criterion for newsworthiness. Yet, barring the 2007 study by Rössler et al, research on news value theory and visuals does not analyze specific news factors, but simply sees ‘press photos’ as another news factor.
The effect of visuals has been explored in a multitude of studies (Graber, 1996; Bruder, 2007; Cope, et al., n.d.; Zillman, Gibson, & Sargent, 1999), which have confirmed that (the content of) images can have an effect on, among other things, attention, retention and memory. Most of these studies have looked at the effect of images in combination with text, specifically whether images have a positive or negative effect on
8 information processing from the text, but outcomes vary. Cope et al. (n.d.) found that photographs have an undeniable impact on affecting emotion, involvement and attitude. In contrast, Graber (1990) and Brosius,
Donsbach and Birk (1996) have demonstrated that the use of visual aids does not increase information acquisition, an effect which others have attributed to the presence of unsettling or alarming attributes in pictures (Lang, Dhillon, & Dong, 1995; Brosius, 1993).
According to dual coding theory (Paivio, 1990), human cognition manages the representation and processing of language in a subsystem separate from that managing information, regarding nonverbal objects and events. Thus, the conclusion could be drawn that the way people perceive and interpret photographs is different from the way they perceive and interpret the accompanying texts. Zillman, Gibson and Sargent (1999) have demonstrated that the importance of topics covered in the news can be grossly overestimated by readers when photographs are used inappropriately or carelessly, and that news readers rely heavily on photographic content in forming long-term and short-term impressions. Other research has demonstrated that increasing the size of a photograph has an agenda-setting effect in a sense that people perceive a news item accompanied by a larger photograph as more important (Wayne, 1988). In summary, these findings show that pictures do indeed have significant effects on recipients.
Above theories have established that journalists select their news on the ground of selection criteria called ‘news factors’ and that media users supposedly select their news in a similar manner.
Research, although limited, on the effect of news factors on recipients has provided some insight in how news values can be applied to media users as well. More recent research has begun to extend news value theory to pictures showing that pictures in themselves have an effect on recipients as well. However, a knowledge gap exists concerning the effect of specific attributes of pictures on the news consumer.
According to Petersen (2011, p. 252), in order to capture the effect of news photos on recipients in a reliable manner “one has, in a sense, to take the pictures to pieces”, creating a need to define those attributes of the photo that may potentially have an effect of the viewer and measure the effect of these attributes by manipulation in an experimental study.
2.4 Embedding photo attributes in theory
The attributes of pictures that function as selection criteria for journalists and that are ascribed to have an influence on intensity of attention of a recipient, have first been conceptualized as ‘photo news factors’ by
Rössler et al. (2011). These factors will be more thoroughly discussed in the last section of the theoretical framework of the current study, but first there is a need to illustrate how the concept of photo news factors
9 can be embedded into a theoretical concept which shows how the effect on recipients follows from the selection process of editors and journalists. To that end, Rössler et al. (2011) have developed an extensive process model that embeds the photo news factors into a theoretical concept, modelled after the dynamic- transactional approach (DTA) formulated by Früh and Schönbach (1982) which is a prevalent notion in mass communication research.
The DTA was built on the theoretical concept that media effects are never the result of one single influence, but rather of various influences. The process model by Rössler et al. applies this multiple- influence concept by covering both the selection of press photos by communicators as well as the impact of press photos on the recipient, and how these work together both intra- (within each side of de dyad) and inter-transactionally (between the two sides). This model is necessary to understand how photo news factors, and, thus, news values theory, fits in the bigger picture of information processing. The current study zooms in on the recipients side and only on the photo news factors themselves. The following paragraphs will contain a brief explanation of the communicators side and a detailed explanation of the recipient side of the process model, to show how the different components work together. This explanation is necessary to demonstrate why and how news value theory can be applied to photos and recipients, as is the case in the current study. An overview of Rössler et al.’s (2011) process model can be seen in Figure 2. In order to reduce the size and increase interpretability, the model has been adapted slightly to display the
‘communicator’ side as one single box. Please refer to Früh and Schönbach (1982) and Rössler et al. (2011) for the original model with the exact influences and transactions on the communicator’s side.
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Figure 2 Revised dynamic-transactional model, based on the model created by Rössler et al. (2011)
On the communicators side is the active selection of press photographs by journalists and editors, based on and motivated by news factors as defined in news value theory. The editor selects a photo which then becomes the media message, which in turn is a combination of the photo itself and the intended impact on the viewer. On the recipient side, Rössler et al. (2011) have integrated aspects of their adapted news value theory, concepts to explain and justify emotional media effects (Scherer, 2001), and approaches from studies on cognitive structures and schemata by Matthes (2004) and Schenk (2007). The message the recipient receives from the communicator is characterized by a particular news value, such as those formulated in news value catalogues (e.g. Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Staab, 1990). Prior to activation by a press photo, the recipient goes through a pre-activation stage after which he or she makes an unconscious judgment of whether to submit the photo to a more intense examination, or to advance leafing through the pages of the news magazine/newspaper. According to research on pre-attentive reception from the field of cognitive psychology (e.g. Wolfe, 2005; Andreoli, Veloso, & Batista, 2014), viewers classify stimuli such as pictures after a brief glance, an observation which provides the viewer with intelligence and serves as the first step towards further selection. Should the photo trigger the viewer’s willingness to take a close look at the photo, this will boost his or her attention level. Based on research on visual communication by Larsen
11 and Diener (1992), several types of emotional activations are possible: the viewer can either experience a ) positive emotional activation, 2) a negative emotional activation, or 3) an emotional non-activation. Rössler et al. (2011, p. 422) emphasize that “the emotions experienced by an individual media user cannot be described solely by positive and negative effects, but also by the degree of physiological arousal.”
A permanent alteration of the message and the recipient’s prior knowledge takes place, where the reader’s intra-transaction (photo assessment) is concerned. Schönbach and Früh (1982) describe knowledge as having the capacity to understand relatively complex information within the process of receiving a message. The intensity of the connection of the stimulus (photo) with the viewer’s cognitive apparatus is determined by the specific photo news factors. These factors are comparable to the traditional news values, such as unexpectedness, proximity, personification, aggression and violence (Rössler et al.,
2011). The concept of photo news factors will be explained in detail later on in this section.
The result of reception and processing of the photo may lead to an increase in knowledge as well as in activation level. At this point, the concept issue relevance becomes relevant. Information needs of audiences are defined by, among other things, their perceived relevance of a certain news issue (Chew,
1994). Issue relevance is, therefore, expected to play a substantial part in determining whether a recipient will proceed from an increased level of attention to actively seeking more information on the topic, such as reading the accompanying article.
For their original process model, Rössler et al. (2011) included the presence of a caption as a part of the media message. They argue that a photo cannot stand on its own and that readers need a minimum amount of textual information if they are to understand the background and context of the photo and, therefore, it needs to be accompanied by a caption. However, Kerrick (1955) has demonstrated that captions tend to modify a viewer’s judgment of picture valence, sometimes to such extent that a photo displaying a happy event is judged as a sad picture. The findings of Kerrick’s study suggest that adding a caption of picture, especially for experimental purposes (so, not written by an actual editor) may cause an undesired confounding variable to appear. Therefore, the caption variable as part of the DTA model will not be a part of the current experiment.
2.5 Photo news factors
As the process model has shown, news value theory can be successfully applied to press photographs as photo news factors, both for the editor and the receiver end. Photo news factors are described by Rössler et al. (2011) as specific attributes of press photographs that, on the communicator side determine whether
12 a photo is worth publishing and, on the recipient side have an influence on recipients’ intensity of attention and emotionalization. Since the current study focuses on the effects on the recipient, the latter part of
Rössler et al.‘s description of photo news factors applies. However, to date, Rössler et al. are the only scholars who have looked at specific attributes of photos rather than photos as a news value in itself. This calls for expansion and further investigation of news factors in various photographic areas. For the current study, a number of four relevant photo news factors were selected that frequently occur in photographs of dramatic events. These photo news factors are: violence/aggression, emotions, suffering, and vulnerable children. The effect of each of the factors on recipients will be examined by measuring intensity of attention
(evaluation of the picture, subsequent interest in the corresponding news article, recall) and emotionalization.
As was previously established in the process model based on the dynamic transactional approach (Rössler et al., 2011), Larsen and Diener (1992) distinguish between positive and negative emotional responses to pictures. As dramatic events commonly deal with negative events and topics, a negative emotional response is expected to occur for all photo news factors related to dramatic events.
Two of the photo news factors that are part of the current study, violence/aggression and emotion, have previously been identified in literature on news values in text, and have been applied by Rössler et al.
(2011) to press photos specifically. The latter two photo news factors, suffering and child vulnerability, have not previously been studied, nor exist as a part of news value catalogues. However, previously mentioned sources provide enough ground to suggest that these new factors are relevant to the domain of dramatic event photographs and may have a substantial effect on intensity of attention and emotionalization of viewers. Suffering and child vulnerability constitute an addition to photo news value catalogues from a recipient point of view and will attempt to explain to a larger degree the effect that photographs of dramatic events have on viewers.
First of all, violence/aggression is a news factor that is extremely likely to appear in photographs of dramatic events such as war and terrorism. Researchers generally define media violence as “acts of physical aggression by one human or human-like character against another” (Huesmann, 2007, p. 2). This factor has been featured in most news value catalogues (Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Chang & Lee, 1992; Staab, 1990;
Harcup & O'Neill, 2001), therefore establishing its relevance to the current study. Rössler et al. (2011) found that photos depicting violence and aggression generate a greater intensity of attention with and emotionalization by recipients. More specifically, intensity of attention for a strong representation for the photo news factor violence/aggression was higher than for a weak representation. The same pattern
13 emerged for emotionalization, in particular for a negative emotional reaction. The current study should therefore yield higher scores for intensity of attention and emotionalization when there is more violence/aggression in a photo.
Second, this research will investigate the effect of a display of emotions in press photographs.
Photos have the distinct ability to represent emotions via subjects and transmit those visually. ‘Visualization of emotions’ has been identified in recent research as a popular selection criteria for journalists (Rössler et al., 2011). According to Singletary and Lamb (1984), emotion is a distinct photographic news value. While a study by Petersen (2011) suggests that the content of photos accompanying media reports does not significantly affect emotionalization, multiple scholars have proven the opposite is true (Nabi, 2003; Paivio,
1986; Cope, et al., n.d.). For example, it has been demonstrated that the emotionality of an event predicts the vividness with which an event is recalled (Heuer & Reisberg, 1990) and, thus, has an effect on intensity of attention. In addition, emotion appeared to be an important factor for recipients in the study by Rössler et al. In their study, emotion showed significant effects for intensity of attention and emotionalization. More specifically, there was a significant difference between a weak and strong representation of emotion, especially when a negative emotional response was triggered. Since the current study focusses on dramatic events which are, as has been established, often of a negative nature, emotions in those pictures is in most cases also negative. Therefore, only pictures with negative emotions will be selected for this research.
Consequently, this photo news factor is expected to produce similar results for the current study, in which a stronger presence of emotions in press photos of dramatic events are expected to produce higher scores for intensity of attention and a negative emotionalization.
Third, the current study will examine the effect on intensity of attention and emotionalization in pictures of dramatic events that exhibit human suffering, a news factor not previously considered by existing literature. Images of suffering have become an integral part of media reporting (Kleinman & Kleinman,
1996). In the first place, this is because many current news topics include a lot of suffering: think of war and terrorism victims, children suffering from malnutrition, and victims of abuse. In the second place, as Friday
(2000) puts it, humans have a “morbid attraction to suffering and what is most horrifying in human existence.” Images of suffering are likely to appeal on both an emotional and moral level to audiences worldwide (Kleinman & Kleinman, 1996). Therefore, it is likely that suffering has a certain news value as it attracts viewers, and to attract an audience is, ultimately, the goal of news broadcasting. Consequently, for
14 the current study, pictures with a stronger representation of suffering are expected to result in higher scores for intensity of attention and greater emotionalization, specifically emotionalization of a negative nature.
The last photo news factor that this study will investigate and which is new to literature on news factors, is child vulnerability. Petersen (2011) hypothesized that, in news photography, depicting a child as a victim would trigger stronger emotional reactions than not depicting a child. His hypothesis was based on the practical wisdom of journalists that depicting children as victims increases emotionalization of recipients. This idea is linked to the news value factor personalization, a constant factor in news value research as described by Galtung and Ruge (1965), Staab (1990), Harcup and O’Neill (2001) and Eilders
(1996). It is related to the media’s tendency to put people at the center of the issue. Looking back to the case of Aylan Kurdi as chronicled in the introduction: the widespread attention for this photograph may stem from the vulnerability of the child that is displayed in this picture. Results of the current study are, therefore, expected to show a significant increase of intensity of attention and a negative emotionalization when a photograph contains a stronger representation of child vulnerability.
As mentioned before, one other factor is integral when measuring the effect of news values on recipients, both in written and visual news. Issue relevance has been included in the process model by
Rössler et al. (2011) (Figure 1) as it was expected to have a substantial and undeniable effect on the intensity of attention and emotionalization of recipients by press photographs. It is considered equally important, if not more important to the current study, considering the theory on dramatic events that was presented earlier. Hence, issue relevance is included as an additional predictor in the research design of the current study. Rössler et al. (2011) have previously included a measure of issue relevance in their research, but have expressed that there was likely room for improvement. Therefore, there current research will attempt to improve this measure by combining the validated issue relevance measure developed by Rössler et al. with a measure of issue relevance as adopted by Zaichkowki (1985).
1. Research question and hypotheses
3.1 Research question
The central question of the current study is: What is the effect of photo news factors connected with dramatic events in press photographs of dramatic events on intensity of attention and emotionalization of recipients?
For operationalization purposes this question has been broken down into two sub-questions:
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1. Does the intensity with which the dramatic event is depicted correlate with intensity of attention
and does this differ per photo news factor?
2. Does the intensity with which the dramatic event is depicted correlate with emotionalization and
does this differ per photo news factor?
3.2 Hypotheses
In the previous section, each paragraph dealing with a separate photo news factor ended with an expected outcome of the current study with regard to intensity of attention and emotionalization for that particular photo news factor. These predictions can be collectively formulated in a number of hypotheses, which are listed below:
H1: Press photos of dramatic events with a strong representation of the photo news factors aggression/violence, emotion, suffering and child vulnerability will result in higher intensity of attention than press photos with a weak representation.
H2: Press photos of dramatic events with a strong representation of the photo news factor aggression/violence, emotion, suffering and a vulnerable child will result in higher emotionalization than press photos with a weak representation.
H3: Press photos of dramatic events will trigger predominantly negative emotions.
H4: Issue perception will interact significantly with the four photo news factors. It is expected that the effect of the photo news factor on intensity of attention and emotionalization will be stronger when there is a great personal interest in topics coinciding with the portrayed picture.
4. Method
The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of particular photo news factors in press photographs of dramatic events on the emotionalization and intensity of attention of viewers. Data was collected by means of two online surveys. The main experiment presented participants with a series of press photographs containing either one, or a combination of those photo news factors, varying in intensity. The intensity with which each photo news factor was present or absent in each picture, was determined in a pre-test. The following section will first describe the details of the pre-test, followed by a detailed outline of the materials, measurements, participants, procedure and design of the main experiment.
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4.1 Pretest
A total of 123 pictures was used as material for the pre-test. These photos were extracted from renowned news broadcaster’s photo websites AP and Reuters. Although pictures taken from AP contained a watermark, this was not considered to obscure the key elements of the photo necessary for the pre-test and main experiment. Selection of the photos was performed by the researcher, by means of scrolling through photo collections of dramatic events (e.g. wars, humanitarian disasters, terrorism, natural disasters) of up to the past two years, where first of all a large number of photos was selected on that they displayed one main photo news factor (violence/aggression, emotion, suffering, vulnerable child) very strongly or rather weakly. All photos were assigned to the category of the strongest present photo news factor. These four collections of photos were then reevaluated to make sure there was an acceptable balance between photos that displayed one photo news factor exclusively, photos that displayed one photo news factor strongly and others weakly, and so on. This resulted in the total of 123 photos, relatively equally distributed over the four news factor categories.
Participants for the pre-test were recruited primarily through social media, in a combination of snowball and convenience sampling, through personal contacts of the researcher. In total, the survey was filled in by 80 respondents, of which 50 were female and 29 were male, with an average age of 31.5 (SD =
11.8). No other demographic information was requested from the participants. Online survey tool Qualtrics was used as the instrument to collect data for the pre-test. The survey was written in Dutch, with the purpose of only recruiting Dutch speakers and thus eliminating any influences originating from cultural differences.
Participants were randomly assigned to a number of 20 stimuli, with the purpose of reducing the duration of the experiment for each participant. Thus, each participant was exposed to a different combination of photos. Prior to the experiment, participants were briefly introduced to the topic of the study and provided with a disclaimer reading that the content of the photos could be both pleasant or shocking. A brief explanation page then instructed participants that they were expected to answer the same question for each photo: “To what extent are the following factors explicitly visible in this photo?”, along with a short definition of each of the four photo news factors. Participants were asked to view each photo and then score that photo on each of the four photo news factors (violence/aggression, emotion, suffering, vulnerable child) on a 7-point Likert scale, or to indicate when a photo news factor was not present at all.
After the survey, participants were thanked for their cooperation.
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The random distribution of participants over the stimuli resulted in an average of 14 unique ratings per photo. The usability of the photos selected by the researcher was judged on one main criterion, namely the consensus of the participants in the pre-test with regard to the scores on each photo news factor per picture. Therefore, photos with a standard deviation larger than 2,6 points on either one of the photo news factors were excluded from the final selection for the main experiment. This exclusion threshold resulted in what was considered an acceptable exclusion of 30 photos. The total number of ratings for the remaining photos was transformed into a mean rating per photo news factor per picture, ranging from zero to seven.
4.2 Experiment
4.2.1 Material
Based on the outcome and selection criteria of the pre-test, a total of 93 useable press photos emerged for use in the main experiment, each pertaining strongly, weakly or not at all to each of the photo news factors and carrying a rating of zero to seven on each of these. The selected photos were almost equally distributed among the four photo news factors with regard to the most prominent photo news factor present in each picture, with 20 to 25 photos per category. Consequently, the final material consisted of 93 photos each containing one or two photo news factors relatively strongly and/or containing other photo news factors weakly, with different combinations per photo. An example of stimuli from every category, with their corresponding scores as determined in the pre-test, can be seen in Figure 3. From the captions in this figure it becomes clear how each photo had a different combination of strong, weak and absent photo news factors.
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Figure 3a. Pre-test scores: violence/aggression 6.7; Figure 3b. Pre-test scores: emotion 4.1; vulnerable child; .3; suffering 5.4 violence/aggression 0; emotion 6.7; vulnerable child .1; suffering 4.6
Figure 3c. Pre-test scores: violence/aggression .3; Figure 3d. Pre-test scores: violence/aggression .5; emotion 3.2; vulnerable child; .2; suffering 6.2 emotion 3.9; vulnerable child; 6.6; suffering 5.6
Figure 3. Examples of stimuli with pre-test scores on 4 photo news factors.
Each stimulus consisted of a unique press photo, accompanied by questions about the dependent variables of the study: one question about emotion on both the arousal and pleasure dimension, and ten statements measuring evaluation of the picture and subsequent interest in reading the corresponding article (Appendix 1). The majority of the photos was shown in full-screen size, and some of lower resolution were shown slightly smaller, although still clearly visible.
4.2.2 Instrumentation
Intensity of attention
The construct intensity of attention that viewers exhibit towards a press photograph of a dramatic event containing particular photo news factors, was measured with three components. The first component was evaluation of the picture, which was measured with seven statements (“This photo is: fascinating/impressive/ordinary/not interesting/striking/boring/unusual”) on a 5-point scale, adapted from a method used by Rössler et al. (2011) and a list of bipolar adjectives by Findahl (1981). Three items
19 were negatively worded and thus recoded. All seven items on this scale were aggregated into one mean
‘evaluation’ measurement. The scale had a very good reliability (α = .96).
The second component was the viewer’s subsequent interest in reading the corresponding article
(e.g. “This photo makes me curious about the accompanying article”), which was measured with three statements, adapted from the method used by Rössler et al. (2011). All ten statements were scored on a 5- point Likert scale, ranging from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree. These two components appeared after every stimulus. A reliability analysis of the scale per photo turned out a strongly improved reliability after excluding the second item on the scale (“This photo does not motivate me to read the corresponding article”) for a large number of stimuli. This negatively worded statement was therefore excluded from analysis.
The third component was recall, which was measured with a free recall task, and which was included to measure which photo news factor in the stimuli was best remembered by participants. To that end, participants were asked to give a brief but clear description of a maximum of seven pictures that they remembered seeing. This method was adopted from Mendelson (2001) and scored according to Millburn
(1992), by scoring free recall answers based on detail of the given description. Almost all participants were able to recall a total of 7 pictures. Descriptions that were very vague an impossible to derive the correct corresponding photo from (e.g. “crying”), were excluded from analysis. Every description that accurately described the subject of the photo received five points (e.g. “African woman in bed”), and an additional five points were allocated when the description contained more detail about the subject, additional subjects, or surroudings (e.g. “Emaciated woman in bed with bad teeth”). The total amount of awarded points per photo were then added up and this resulted in a recall score per photo ranging from 5 to 90, where a score of five meant that one participant had recalled that photo once and a score of 90 meaning that many participants had recalled that photo in much detail. This question appeared at the end of the survey, after participants had seen all 12 stimuli.
Emotionalization
The emotion people felt after viewing each photo, hence referred to as emotionalization, was assessed by means of the self-assessment manikin (SAM), a non-verbal pictorial assessment technique created by Lang
(1980). Bradley and Lang (1994) found that the SAM, which requires only three simple judgments, is similar in effectiveness to, for instance, the semantic differential scale devised by Mehrabian and Russell (1974) or
Osgood (1962), which requires 18 judgments. An example of the SAM scale as used in the current study can
20 be seen in Figure 4. The ‘dominance’ dimension, which forms the third dimension of the original SAM scale, was excluded in the current study since it was deemed irrelevant.
Figure 4. Self-assessment manikin as used in the current study (in Dutch)
Although other measurements of affect are known (Posner, Russell, & Peterson, 2005; Tellegen & Watson,
1985; Thayer, 1989), and valence and activation are by no means the only dimensions of affect (Yik &
Russell, 1999), these dimensions have nevertheless proven to be very relevant and valid measurements of emotion (Bakker, van der Voordt, Vink, & de Boon, 2014). The SAM scale was hence elected as the emotionalization measure for its validated success, as well as the fact that it is relatively easy for respondents to answer, in a short period of time. Prior to running the analysis for the present study, the pleasure dimension was recoded so that low scores on emotionalization correspond with negative emotionalization (unpleasantness and high arousal).
Issue relevance
Since it was expected that a person’s personal interest in certain news issue may substantially influence their level of attention towards and emotionalization by a certain picture, this was integrated in the survey with the construct ‘issue relevance’. Rössler et al. have previously included a measure of issue relevance in their 2011 study, but expressed that there was likely room for improvement. Therefore, the current research included a combination of the validated issue relevance measure developed by Rössler et al. as well as a measure of issue relevance taken from Zaichkoswki (1985). Issue relevance was measured by means of presenting participants with a list of news topics covering the scope of all stimuli photos and asking them to rate the personal importance of each topic (“How important are the follows news topics to you?”), on a 5-point, starred scale. The eventual issue relevance score was obtained by calculating the mean
21 issue relevance score per issue and assigning that score to photos corresponding with that particular issue.
Consequently, there were 11 different issue relevance scores ranging between 3.80 and 5.97.
4.2.3 Participants
A total of 155 participants completed the experiment, of which 39 were male, 72 were female, and 44 did not specify their sex. Their average age was 28.9 (SD = 11.3) and 45 participants did not specify their age.
No other demographic questions were asked from the participants. Participants for the main experiment were recruited primarily through social media, via personal contacts of the researcher, and on public transport (i.e. in trains). The total of 155 responses, some of them partial, resulted in a number of 13 to 18 participants being exposed to each stimulus.
4.2.4 Procedure
Data collection was completed with online survey tool Qualtrics. Similar to the pre-test, the survey was written in Dutch, with the purpose of only recruiting Dutch speakers and thus eliminating any possible cultural influences. Participants were randomly assigned to a number of 12 stimuli, which was achieved through block-randomization in Qualtrics. Consequently, each participant was exposed to a different combination of 12 stimuli, in order to ensure they would be shown stimuli with different factors and a specific combination of stimuli would not have any effect on the outcome of the experiment.
Prior to commencing the experiment, participants were briefly introduced to the purpose of the study and the contents of the experiment by means of an introduction page preceding the online survey. A disclaimer was included in this first page to prepare participants for the fact that the content of the photos could be both pleasant or shocking. Participants were told they were about to see a series of pictures and were requested to carefully read the instructions related to the actions that were required from them for each photo. After the general introduction, an instruction page was included with regard to the emotionalization question containing the SAM scale. Participants were shown what the SAM scale looked like and instructed to click anywhere on or between the figures to express their emotions. Moreover, they were told to select the middle option in both the arousal and pleasure scale (the ‘neutral’ option) if they felt no particular emotion after viewing the photo. A succeeding page alerted the participants that the experiment was about to start.
For each photo, participants were presented with the SAM scale and the twelve statements. After the series of pictures, issue relevance was measured by asking participants to indicate for a list of news topics how important they were to them. The last experimental question was the free-recall task in which
22 participants were asked to describe a maximum of seven photos they could remember having seen. The survey ended with a couple of demographic variables measuring age and sex. After the experiment, participants were thanked for their cooperation. No incentive was offered to any of the participants.
4.2.5 Design and statistical analyses
The current study was designed to measure the effect of the degree of presence of certain photo news factors in press photographs on intensity of attention (evaluation, article interest, recall) and emotionalization of viewers. To that end, the data file was constructed in such a way that each press photo/stimulus was accompanied by a score on each of the four photo news factors (violence/aggression, emotion, vulnerable child, suffering) and a score on the dependent variables. The former scores were determined in the pre-test whereas the latter scores were collected in the main experiment. In addition, each photo carried a score on issue relevance. After the data were collected and cleaned, two sets of four multiple linear regression analyses were run in SPSS. The scores on the four photo news factors operated as predictors in the regression analyses. The first set of regressions was concerned with testing the effect on the dependent variables, whereas the second set was concerned with testing the interaction effects between each of the predictors and issue relevance. In all regressions, issue relevance was included as a predictor variable for reasons of completeness. The consideration was made to only include issue relevance in the interaction regression, but after running regressions both with and without the issue relevance variable it was concluded that the impact of this variable was negligible.
5. Results
The following paragraphs will discuss per dependent variable the outcomes for the independent variables.
The effect on each of the photo news factors was measured by both emotionalization and intensity of attention (evaluation, article interest, recall). The assumptions corresponding with a regression analysis
(linearity, residuals, homoscedasticity, independence of errors, Cook’s distance, Mahalanobis distance, multicollinearity) were all checked but no violations emerged.
5.1 Intensity of attention
5.1.1 Evaluation
The evaluation score for each photograph was obtained by calculating the mean score on seven evaluation terms (fascinating/impressive/ordinary/not interesting/striking/boring/unusual). A significant regression equation was found for evaluation, R2 = .57, F(5,87) = 23.46, p < .001. More specifically, the
23 regression analysis showed a positive effect of violence/aggression and suffering on the evaluation score, bviolence/aggression = .074, β = .317, p < .001, bsuffering = .263, β = .661, p < .001. In other words, press photographs displaying more violence/aggression and/or more suffering are rated as more fascinating, impressive, striking or unusual. A trend towards significance was present for a negative effect of emotion on evaluation, bemotion = -.057, β = -.138, p = .059. This trend cautiously shows that the evaluation score of a photo decreases when it displays a greater degree of visible emotion. There was no significant effect for the child vulnerability and issue relevance variables. The regression outcomes and their significance are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Effect of predictors on evaluation. Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression .074*** .317 (.017) (4.40)
Emotion -.057 -.138 (.030) (-1.91)
Vulnerable child -.003 -.013 (.015) (-.18)
Suffering .263*** .661 (.029) (9.06)
Issue relevance -.001 -.042 (.001) (-.58)
Constant 2.18 Adjusted R2 .55 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
5.1.2 Interest in subsequent article
The participants’ interest in reading the subsequent article was measured with two concepts of which the mean was calculated. Also for article interest a significant regression equation was found, R2 = .41, F(5,87)
= 12.28, p < .001. More specifically, the regression analysis showed a positive effect of violence/aggression and suffering on article interest, bviolence/aggression = .070, β = .310, p < .001, bsuffering = .193, β = .504, p < .001.
These results indicate that readers are more inclined to read an article belonging to a certain press photograph when this photo displays more violence/aggression and/or more suffering. The analysis showed a trend towards significance for a negative effect of child vulnerability on article interest, b = -.029,
β = -.15, p = .079. This means that there is reason to believe that when there is a more intensified depiction
24 of a vulnerable child, less viewers are inclined to read the article corresponding with that particular press photograph. However, this result should be interpreted with caution. A visual display of emotion or a person’s personal relevance of the news issue in the photograph, however, did not significantly affect a reader’s interest in reading the corresponding article. The regression outcomes and their significance are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Effect of predictors on article interest. Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression .070*** .310 (.019) (3.67)
Emotion .015 .037 (.033) (.44)
Vulnerable child -.029 -.150 (.017) (.178)
Suffering .193*** .503 (.033) (5.88)
Issue relevance < .001 -.010 (.001) (-.124)
Constant 2.24 Adjusted R2 .38 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
5.1.3 Recall
A significant regression equation was found for recall, R2 = .23, F(5,87) = 5.08, p < .001. More specifically, a significant negative effect was found of emotion on recall, bemotion = -6.93, β = -.365, p < .001. In other words, when the amount of emotion displayed in a press photograph increases, people are less likely to recall that photograph. Furthermore, in contrast, suffering showed a positive effect on recall, bsuffering = 4.24, β = .23, p
= .022. Specifically, when the amount of suffering represented in a press photograph increases, a photograph is better recalled by viewers. No significant effect on recall was found for violence/aggression and, child vulnerability or issue relevance. The regression outcomes and their significance are presented in
Table 3.
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Table 3. Effect of predictors on recall. Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression 1.29 .120 (1.05) (1.23)
Emotion -6.93*** -.365 (1.85) (-3.75)
Vulnerable child 1.65 .170 (.92) (1.80)
Suffering 4.24* .230 (1.81) (2.34)
Issue relevance -.016 -.02 (.07) (-.22)
Constant 36.85 Adjusted R2 .182 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
5.2 Emotionalization
Emotionalization was measured on the pleasure and arousal dimensions of the SAM scale. A significant regression equation was found for emotionalization, R2 = .58, F(5,87) = 23.57, p < .001. More specifically, the regression analysis showed a negative effect of the presence of violence/aggression and suffering in a press photograph on emotionalization (pleasure and arousal), bviolence/aggression = -.167, β = -.299, p < .001, bsuffering = -.627, β = -.657, p < .001. This means that with an increased display of violence/aggression or suffering, participants are more negatively emotionalized and experience less pleasure and higher
(negative) arousal. There was no overall effect of the presence of emotion, child vulnerability or personal issue relevance on emotionalization by viewers. The regression outcomes and their significance are presented in Table 4.
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Table 4. Effect of predictors on emotionalization. Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression -.167*** -.299
(.40) (-4.16)
Emotion .048 .049 (.071) (.681)
Vulnerable child .008 .016 (.035) (.22)
Suffering -.627*** -.657 (.070) (-9.02)
Issue relevance .005 .121 (.003) (1.70)
Constant 7.38 Adjusted R2 .551 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
5.3 Interaction effects with issue relevance
To be able to test the hypothesis that issue relevance interacts with the four photo news factors and has an impact on intensity of attention and emotionalization, second set of four multiple regressions was run. The first model, as discussed above, included the independent variables of the photo news factors and issue relevance, whereas the second model included, on top of these, the interaction variables of all predictor variables with issue relevance. The results of the regression analyses showed that the second model was no improvement over the first model for any of the dependent variables, R2 changeevaluation = .013, p = .651, R2 changearticleinterest = .017, p = .702, R2 changerecall = .037, p = .443, R2 changeemotionalization = .006, p = .900. The particular relevance of issues to the public, therefore, has no effect on a viewer’s intensity of attention towards a press photograph of a dramatic event, or on how they are emotionalized by it. The regression outcomes and their significance are presented in Appendix 2.
6. Conclusions
This study investigated how the presence of certain photo news factors in press photos of dramatic events have an influence on the intensity of attention and emotionalization of viewers. The photo news factors investigated in the current research were violence/aggression, emotion, suffering and child vulnerability.
By scoring a wide variety of photos, differing in the combination and intensity of photo news factors present, the influence of each of these factors on the dependent variables was tested. Four hypotheses were
27 formulated about the expected results. The following section will repeat these hypotheses and describe the conclusions of the research on each of these. The conclusions will be further interpreted in the discussion section.
The results on intensity of attention (evaluation, article interest, recall) showed that a larger degree of suffering leads to a higher evaluation of the picture, a larger interest in reading the corresponding article and a higher recall score. A larger presence of violence/aggression also leads to higher evaluation and a larger interest in the corresponding article, but not to higher recall scores. A greater display of emotion in a photo only has an effect on recall of the photo, not on article interest or evaluation. Hypothesis 1, therefore, is only partially confirmed as it states that all photo news factors would result in a higher intensity of attention when they are strongly represented.
The results on emotionalization showed that when there is larger degree of violence/aggression or suffering present in a news photograph, viewers are more emotionalized by it. A greater display of emotion, child vulnerability or issue relevance, however, does not have an effect on a recipients’ emotionalization.
Also hypothesis 2 is, therefore, partly confirmed as it states that stronger representation of all photo news factors would result in greater emotionalization. Similarly, also hypothesis 3 is partly confirmed as it states that press photos of dramatic events will trigger predominantly negative emotions. This statement holds true for the photo news factors for which significant effects are visible in hypothesis 2: participants feel less pleasant and more aroused after viewing a photo with a larger degree of violence/aggression or suffering.
These emotions have been classified by Bradley and Lang (1994) as ‘negative’.
The results of the regression models with the interaction between issue relevance and the photo news factors show that the degree to which viewers value a certain issue portrayed in a picture does not influence their intensity of intention or their degree of emotionalization by that particular photo news factor. These results lead to the rejection of hypothesis 4 which states that intensity of attention and emotionalization would be stronger when the topic covered in the press photograph is relevant to the viewer.
7. Dicussion
In the introduction, a question was raised about the public interest in the photograph of Aylan Kurdi (Figure
1). Could the widespread attention for that picture be explained by the effect of specific factors in the photo?
The current study does not provide an answer to that question specifically, but it does offer a broader
28 perspective: it shows that certain aspects of press photographs are indeed responsible for the attention given to a picture and the emotions people feel after seeing it.
The starting point of the current study was the dynamic transactional model as first proposed by
Früh and Schönbach (1982) and adapted for photographic news content by Rössler et al. (2011). This model provided the link between the widely established, traditional news value theory and its fairly unexplored application to photographs and recipients. Rössler et al.’s model in combination with their 2011 study revealed that photo news factors originating in news value theory do indeed have an effect on recipients. A first list of news factors was proposed by Galtung and Ruge (1965). However, as they themselves noted, this list was by no means complete, and there was room for improvement, alterations and additions to the existing photo news catalogues (Harcup & O’Neill, 2001). The current study was carried out to add to aforementioned studies and provide further evidence for existing photo news factors, while adding two new photo news factors to the literature as well. In addition, the current study has added to the dynamic transactional model in a way that it has validated the model’s application to pictures and to recipients.
However, when looking at the results of the present research and when those to other literature, surprising and aberrant results are visible. The following section will discuss and attempt to explain both significant and non-significant outcomes and in what ways those effects can be interpreted.
7.1 Results for suffering and violence/aggression
A news factor that is novel to the field of news factor research is suffering. Based on studies by
Friday (2000) and Kleinman and Kleinman (1996), suffering was expected to have a great influence on viewers as it appeals on an emotional and moral level to audiences worldwide. In line with these expectations, the presence of suffering resulted in greater intensity of attention on all measurements, and increased negative emotionalization. More specifically, suffering was the strongest predictor of intensity of attention and emotionalization in the current study. This photo news factor, therefore, proves to be a worthy addition to photo news factor theory.
Also, violence/aggression has previously been featured in many news catalogues (Galtung & Ruge,
1965; Chang & Lee, 1992; Staab, 1990; Harcup & O'Neill, 2001) and it was an important predictor in Rössler et al.’s 2011 paper on photo news factors. In line with this previous research, the current study found that violence/aggression is indeed an important photo news factor and that press photographs of dramatic events displaying more violence and/or aggression result in higher evaluation scores and greater negative emotionalization. These results make sense in a way that violence and aggression are predominantly
29 expressive and clearly visible, both in real-life and in photographs. Apparently, recipients react to this and find those press photographs containing violence and aggression more interesting, are more inclined to read the corresponding article, and feel more aroused and less pleasant after seeing the photo.
7.2 Surprising results for emotion
The most striking result of the current study is that visible emotion in a photograph does not increase intensity of attention and emotionalization. Whereas emotion emerged as a very important predictor of increased intensity of attention as well as increased emotionalization in Rössler et al.’s 2011 study, the current study gives reason to believe that the more emotion is displayed in a photo, the less likely viewers are to recall that photo. This directly contradicts the findings of Heuer and Reisenberg (1990). In addition, the present study suggests that when there is more visible emotion in a press photograph, recipients find this photo to be less interesting, engaging, impressive, unusual or notable. Moreover, emotion did not have any effect on interest in reading the article, and arguably most surprisingly, on emotionalization. Hence, there is a need to reevaluate the expected impact of emotion in press photographs on recipients and look at various explanations.
Firstly, explanations could lie in the methodological differences between the current study and
Rössler et al.’s work (2011). For example, although the latter paper found a positive effect of emotion on intensity of attention and emotionalization, it only used two stimuli per photo news factor. Arguably, the results of the current study can therefore be better generalized to the population. Nevertheless, the outcomes on the photo news factor violence/aggression of the current study are in line with Rössler et al.’s work, confirming the validity of their results. This means there should be other explanations for the differences that occurred on the emotion factor.
In general, there is a need to consider the fact that emotions are often quite subtle, hard to interpret, or subjective to the interpreter. For example, a photo of a woman in a hijab (Figure 5.) was originally selected by the researcher as showing little emotion. However, the answer on the free recall question revealed that various participants described this photo as showing ‘an angry looking woman.’
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Figure 5. Photo of woman in hijab as an example of subjectivity in judging emotion.
Emotions are either contained to one person’s face or body language, or made up of a combination of the two (Meeren, van Heijnsbergen, & de Gelder, 2005). Possibly, reading emotion from subjects in a photograph is challenging, hard to measure, or influenced by the experimental setting of a study. Moreover, he explanation of our natural attraction to dramatic events tends to focus on the event itself, what’s happening around a person. In contrast, press photographs scoring high on emotion were often close-ups of persons with clearly visible emotional expressions (e.g. crying), but without much background or possibility to deduct from the picture alone why subjects were showing that particular emotion.
Consequently, it may have been unclear to viewers what that picture was really about, resulting in decreased impact. Another consideration is that, because these photographs with emotion were shown in conjunction with photographs that strongly represented the other photo news factors, emotion simply did not seem as striking to recipients in comparison to the other photos.
7.3 No effects of child vulnerability
Child vulnerability was introduced as a new photo news factor in the current study, mainly following Petersen’s (2011) hypothesis on the presence of children in pictures. This hypothesis was based on a journalist’s practical wisdom that depicting a child as a victim increases emotionalization of recipients as opposed to not depicting a child. This factor was then operationalized into a selection of stimuli in which children were depicted in varying vulnerable states. It was expected that child vulnerability would yield results similar to Petersen’s hypothesis. Looking back to the photograph of little Aylan Kurdi on the beach, we may expect its impact to be caused by his vulnerability, lying there by himself. However, the results of the current study suggest that this expectation needs rethinking. The current study does not provide any proof for this hypothesis as child vulnerability does not lead to increased intensity of attention or
31 emotionalization. A surprising trend towards significance was even visible in the opposite direction: results suggested that more child vulnerability in a picture might lead to less interest in reading the corresponding article. Various explanations for this effect, or lack thereof, can be considered.
First of all, child vulnerability may simply have to be rejected as a photo news factor based on the results presented here. This photo news factor was newly introduced in the current research and its level of validity is, therefore, undetermined. However, a more likely explanation is that, in line with previous literature, the effect of child vulnerability is only present when comparing pictures with or without children, rather than as a specific difference within the ‘child’ factor. Petersen (2011) did indeed hypothesize the effect of including a child, but did not specify how this child was depicted. The factor child vulnerability was formulated to describe the way that children often appear in press photographs of dramatic events.
However, other related factors may be responsible for recipients’ reactions to these pictures. The factor of children in photographs in general may form a very interesting starting point of future studies. More on this will be discussed in the section ‘limitations and further research.’
7.4 Interaction with issue relevance
Issue relevance was included in the current research as a fifth predictor, based on Rössler et al.
(2011) statements that it is considered to be integral in measuring the effect of news values on recipients, both in written and visual news. Rössler et al. found a moderate influence of issue relevance on intensity of attention and emotionalization, but the researchers expressed a need for a more thorough measurement of the variable. In an attempt to better measure this construct, the current research combined the method used by Rössler et al. with a method adopted by Zaichkowski (1985). Despite its expected importance, there was no visible effect on either evaluation, article interest, recall or emotionalization. However, considering its relevance in the previously mentioned literature, there is a need to take a critical look at the application of this predictor in the current study.
It is expected that the methodological issues that emerged in this research may have decidedly influenced the outcome of the results for issue relevance. First of all, due to the chosen study design, issue relevance could not be measured per participant but only per photo. The range of scores on issue relevance was, therefore, very small (3.80 – 5.97) with a total of only 11 scores. As a result, the regression analyses that tested for interactions with issue relevance had only little power. Second of all, in contrast with Rössler et al.’s 2011 study, the current research did not include captions with the photographs, since captions tend to modify a viewer’s judgment of picture valence, sometimes to such extent that a picture displaying a happy
32 event is judged as a sad picture (Kerrick, 1955). However, it is possible that captions are indeed necessary to be able to validly measure issue relevance since these captions are what reveal the issue at stake to the reader/viewer.
8. Limitations and future research
The current study was inspired by the work of Rössler et al. (2011) on photo news factors. Their study is to date one of few approaches to news value research with a focus on press photographs. Although the topic of Rössler et al.’s work and the current study was similar, profound methodological differences exist. Most importantly, the number of stimuli and the statistical method of the current study constitute an entirely different approach. However, this statistical approach brought forward some implications, which may have influenced the results. Most importantly, participant variance was lost due to the item-analysis.
Nevertheless, this sacrifice made sense as it made it possible to create continuous variables and run regressions.
A second comment on this research is about the consequences of the experimental setting. The dynamic transactional model (DTM) (Früh & Wirth, 1992; Rössler et al., 2011) was meant to explain all interactions that happen in real life before readers/viewers choose a photograph and scrutinize it. However, in most experimental settings it is only possible to capture a fragment of reality. Similarly, the current study merely considered a fragment of the actions that are part of the DTM. For instance, the current study presented participants with pre-selected photographs while the DTM assumes that readers make this selection themselves. It is doubtful whether including all steps of the model in an experimental setting is feasible, yet future research should consider the possibility that approximating the reality of the DTM could influence experimental results.
Another comment that should be made about the current study pertains to the topic of dramatic events and the selected pictures. As humans, we are naturally attracted to dramatic events and calamity
(Davis & McLeod, 2003; Rozario, 2007). Based on this statement alone, we would expect to see an effect on intensity of attention and emotionalization for all photo news factors since all of these were present within a photograph of a dramatic event. However, not all photographs selected for the current study explicitly reveal that we are dealing with a dramatic event. Although all pictures were taken from photo collections of dramatic news events, some of these pictures only depict a person without their surroundings, not making it explicitly clear whether that person is present in a dramatic event. Arguably, this explains some
33 of the unconfirmed hypotheses. Most importantly, any future studies into this topic should attempt to select photos that make it explicit to the viewer that they are dealing with a dramatic event, or any other frame of research.
Regarding the predictor variables of the current study, two comments can be made. The first is about the effects of child vulnerability. Even though the current research did not find any, or only little, effect of child vulnerability on recipients’ intensity of attention and emotionalization, this does open up opportunities for other research efforts. The factor of children in photographs in general may form a very interesting starting point of future studies to discover how including a child or young person in a photograph influences intensity of attention and emotionalization as opposed to including an older person.
This ‘child’ factor could be studied either as part of other photo news factors or in itself. In contrast to the present study, this factor could be studied as a binary factor: there either is a child present or there is not, keeping in mind to reduce influence of any other possible factors in the picture. Furthermore, these studies could explore whether a press photo generates more attention when the subject in the photo is of the same age as the recipient. The other comment is about the emotion factor. Reading emotion from subjects in a photograph can be challenging, hard to measure, or influenced by the experimental setting of a study. This may have formed a limitation not only on the recipient side but also on the researcher side. Pictures were selected by one researcher only, and although they were scores on the photo news factor ‘emotion’ by a larger group of participants, future research into the photo news factor emotion might benefit from a selection process in which photos are chosen by multiple researchers.
As a last comment, it should be mentioned that the measure of issue relevance within the current study is open to improvement. Future research should attempt to find better methods, or expand the methods used by Rössler et al. (2011), Zaichkowski (1985) and the current study, to properly measure the effect of a person’s personal interest in a news topic on how they are influenced by a press photograph. Both item-analysis and scope were responsible for the undesirable measure of issue relevance of the present study. Future research should attempt to find the balance between expanding the issue relevance measure and not putting too much burden on participants. Most importantly, it is important to find a tool that can measure issue relevance per individual recipient.
In general, future research may further expand the field of photo news factor research by investigating other photo news factors and their effect. Interesting photo news factors or research fields,
34 such as dramatic events, may appear in the future due to developments in society. An example of this could be the political landscape, which continues to change over time and differs per country.
9. Practical implications
The results of the present research have theoretical implications for scholars investigating the effect of specific photo attributes on recipients. Moreover, these results have practical implications for media professionals and journalists around the globe. Cope et al. (n.d.) previously observed that the outcome of their research on how pictures influence news consumers, provides the media with a powerful tool in shaping public opinion. Likewise, the results of the current study can be applied in a similar manner. The effect of the degree of violence/aggression and suffering in press photographs on the public may be used by journalists and media professionals to control the impact and desired effect of their message by adding photographs containing a certain degree of presence of these photo news factors. By selecting certain photographs, involvement and affect in certain events can be shaped in a positive way and to an appropriate degree.
35
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Appendices Appendix 1 – Stimulus example
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Appendix 2– Regression tables of interaction effects
Effect of predictors and interaction variables on evaluation. Model 1 Model 2 Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression .074*** .317 -.056*** .242 (.017) (4.395) (.019) (2.983)
Emotion -.057 -.138 -.053 -.129 (.030) (-1.91) (.032) (-1.630)
Vulnerable child -.003 -.013 -.018 -.086 (.015) (-183) (.016) (-1.077)
Suffering .263*** .661 .288*** .723 (.029) (9.06) (.032) (9.02)
Issue relevance -.001 -.042 .001 .045 (.001) (-.584) (.015) (.048)
Violence/aggression x -.020* -.195 issue relevance (.100) (.85)
Emotion x issue -.035 -.175 relevance (.201) (.862)
Vulnerable child x issue -.043* -.380 relevance (.113) (.705)
Suffering x issue .170 .991 relevance (.171) (.325)
Constant 2.166 2.169 Adjusted R2 .553 .575 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
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Effect of predictors and interaction variables on article interest. Model 1 Model 2 Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression .068** .294 -.055 -.235 (.020) (3.328) (-.222) (-.247)
Emotion .023 .060 .194 .498 (.035) (.673) (.439) (.441)
Vulnerable child -.030 -.153 -.276 -1.428 (.017) (-1.736) (.245) (-1.126)
Suffering .184*** .484 .109 .288 (.035) (5.315) (.374) (.292)
Issue relevance .048 .059 -.057 -.070 (.072) (.671) (.737) (-.078)
Violence/aggression x .026 .536 issue relevance (.047) (.548)
Emotion x issue -.037 -.515 relevance (.095) (-.384)
Vulnerable child x issue .053 1.259 relevance (.053) (.994)
Suffering x issue .015 .213 relevance (.081) (.183)
Constant 2.016 2.545 Adjusted R2 .381 .366 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
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Effect of predictors and interaction variables on recall. Model 1 Model 2 Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression 1.110 .097 9.256 .811 (1.159) (.958) (12.408) (.746)
Emotion -7.132** -.373 4.438 .232 (1.968) (-3.624) (24.587) (.181)
Vulnerable child 1.800 .189 22.512 2.369 (.966) (1.863) (13.719) (1.641)
Suffering 4.197* .225 -26.496 -1.421 (1.955) (2.147) (20.963) (-1.264)
Issue relevance 3.035 .075 .300 .007 (4.084) (.743) (41.296) (.007)
Violence/aggression x issue -1.713 -.718 relevance (2.660) (-.644)
Emotion x issue relevance -2.589 -.742 (5.330) (-.486)
Vulnerable child x issue -4.526 -2.182 relevance (2.990) (-1.514)
Suffering x issue relevance 6.736 1.959 (4.542) (1.483)
Constant 23.970 35.516 Adjusted R2 .181 .178 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
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Effect of predictors and interaction variables on emotionalization. Model 1 Model 2 Predictor B (standard error) Beta (t value) B (standard error) Beta (t value) Violence/aggression -.148** -.256 -.054 -.116 (.043) (-3.46) (.467) (.91)
Emotion .060 .062 .217 .234 (.073) (.83) (.926) (.82)
Vulnerable child .011 .023 .203 .394 (.036) (.31) (.517) (.695)
Suffering -.655*** .072 -1.44 -1.820 (.072) (-.69) (.79) (.073)
Issue relevance .112 .054 -.386 -.248 (.151) (.054) (1.56) (.81)
Violence/aggression x issue -.020 -.195 relevance (.100) (.85)
Emotion x issue relevance -.035 -.175 (.201) (.862)
Vulnerable child x issue -.043 -.380 relevance (.113) (.705)
Suffering x issue relevance .170 .991 (.171) (.325)
Constant 6.89 9.20 Adjusted R2 .596 .547 n = 93 * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
45