Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 © David Machin and Lydia Polzer 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6– 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE Palgrave in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave is a global imprint of the above companies and is represented throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978– 0– 230– 36021– 1 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Printed in China Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Contents List of Figures vi Acknowledgements viii Introduction: Visual Design as Systematic Communication 1 1 Photojournalism: Documenting and Symbolising Events 21 2 Magazine Design: Ideas and Attitudes through Visual Elements 47 3 Changing Newspaper Designs for New Kinds of Markets 76 4 Design and the Digital Media Environment 106 5 Staging the News for Television 137 Conclusion 167 References 174 Index 182 v Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Introduction: Visual Design as Systematic Communication Journalism has received extensive scholarly study over the past three decades. This has tended to focus on national newspapers, on how and why they represent the world and events in the way that they do, and more recently on the falling circulations of these titles. But vast areas of journalistic work have actually been conspicuously absent from such studies. One of these neglected areas is the visual aspect of journalism. Yet the visual elements of media, the way in which they are employed, arranged and designed, be it in newspapers, magazines, on webpages, tablets and smart- phones or in television, contributes significantly to the message conveyed. Throughout this book, by examining the under- lying principles of this visual work, along with its changing nature, we aim to demonstrate its central importance. This visual work is not mere dressing or appearance, but fuses with the very meaning of what is on the page or screen. And in contemporary print, digital and television journalism, it is now often the case that the product is built from a visual basis in the first place. In other words, content is collected and shaped to fit a newspaper or webpage that has a clearly formed visual identity. While photojournalism has been taken more seriously, other visual aspects of news and journalism have tended to be sidelined as mere packaging. We argue throughout this book that the meaning of the writ- ten or spoken part of journalism, across different media, is communi- cated simultaneously by how it is presented visually. Rather, in fact, we would say how it is realised visually. We prefer this term here as we want to move away from the idea that the visual is independent from language and ‘information’. Visuals do not simply supplement, or package, news, editorials or features, but form part of the ideas about the world, con- cepts and attitudes that are communicated. It is useful, we suggest, to acknowledge that news and journalism have always been intricately bound into ideas about what constitutes knowledge in a given society. Then conclusions can be made about what forms its communication might take and what kinds of sources can claim to provide this. In this 1 Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 2 Visual Journalism book we track how these ideas have changed over time and now appear communicated with greater sensitivity and complexity in visual forms. Of course, new technologies have made this possible. But the way we communicate has itself changed. We may live in a more visual culture, but in addition to that the role of the visual and its relationship with language is certainly undergoing a far- reaching transformation. News and journalistic work has always been produced for specific mar- kets. Designers work on the layout of newspapers so that their content best speaks to a particular target group; a magazine designer must make the right visual and compositional choices to communicate the ideas, mood and identity of the title; a set designer must ensure that the look of a news studio is appropriate for the brand of the news programme and the attitude and mood it seeks to present to viewers. These visuals are not simply mere style or ‘presentation’ but form part of the way in which news creates meaning and also about the social relations they set up with readers, users and viewers. For example, a designer might ask: should a newspaper have lots of white space on the page to suggest lightness as opposed to filling all available space with condensed text? According to one newspaper designer whose work we look at in detail in this book, such choices change the meaning of the content itself, but also the meaning of the very medium itself and how it is perceived. He pointed out that formerly in design it was important for newspapers to present themselves as formal, important, authoritative and as contain- ing all the information needed by a person who considered themselves as ‘informed’. Here condensed text and crowded pages were necessary to signify this, even if in fact many of the items would go unread. Spreading text and contents out so that the page contains extensive amounts of white space is part of a shift in the market that now experiences the former authoritative newspaper as pompous, dull and conservative. This new lighter newspaper suggests something that is a distraction during a commute to work and speaks to someone who feels they should be communicated with as a shrewd thinking person rather than as a unin- formed citizen. The information may be the same, but the visuals give it a different meaning and orient it towards different reader requirements and experiences. Design is not simply packaging or dressing but is part of the way the meaning of the contents is communicated. In Figure I.1 we see a mock up design for a page by a professional mag- azine designer who freelances across many international titles. There is not yet any actual content on this page. Designers use a piece of Latin text called ‘Lorem Ipsum’ to mimic the look of real copy when creating mock ups, so they don’t need the finished article to start laying out the Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 3 Figure I.1 Mock up for magazine design Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 Copyrighted material – 978–0–230–36021–1 4 Visual Journalism page. And yet the visual choices made in this case already communi- cate clear ideas and attitudes. They set up a kind of social relationship between the title and the reader. We can see in Figure I.1 that the designer has not yet decided on which of the ‘cog’ or ‘bolt’ type insets to use. But the choices in font, in visual elements, such as the cog and the computer keyboard shapes, along with the page structure and borders, communicate something of the ideas and attitudes the text might carry. The designer said that this design was for a magazine oriented towards a male market. The page uses three columns of main text to avoid a sense of dense reading. Design features, such as the very modern and slightly feminine font, the extensive use of space, along with a measured use of colour, speak to a more upmar- ket, younger, professional male. He might consider himself – in the lan- guage of marketing – more of a ‘critical thinker’, ‘open minded’ and ‘style aware’ (even if they may not necessarily be any of these things). The language style of the writing must of course speak to this target audience, too. And the advertisers buying ad space in this magazine will also be those who are aiming at that particular audience. Design and content together shape how the publication is perceived and received by the reader. Visual design in journalism is an integral part of how meaning emerges from the content of news stories, with the people and events they cover. A reader will understand the news events carried by news outlets in a way that is fused with their visual appearance. In scholarly work there has been some attention to this in terms of the role of the photograph, but rarely in terms of more detailed visual choices such as page layout and the subtleties of a television set design.