Photo Illustration in U.S. Newsmagazines during the Past Three Decades A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Yuk-Kwong Edmund Lo August 2008 i This dissertation titled Photo Illustration in U.S. Newsmagazines during the Past Three Decades by YUK-KWONG EDMUND LO has been approved for the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Scripps College of Communication by Daniel Riffe Professor of Journalism Gregory J. Shepherd Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT LO, YUK-KWONG EDMUND, Ph.D., August 2008, Mass Communication Photo Illustration in U.S. Newsmagazines during the Past Three Decades (139 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Daniel Riffe Photo illustrations used in news context have raised dozens of credibility and ethical issues in photojournalism in the last few decades. Controversial aspects about the practice were mainly how the photo illustrations were photographed and presented and the way they were labeled. General discussions are plenty within the industry; however, systematic and quantitative studies on this topic are scarce and long-needed for examining the issue. This study examined three decades of three major newsmagazines in the United States, i.e. Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. The researcher studied the newsmagazines’ use of photo illustrations in terms of frequency and size; the ways of labeling the photo illustrations; the style of presenting the photo illustrations; and the subject categories the photo illustrations were intended to illustrate. Content analysis was used as the method for this study. A total of 252 sample issues from seven constructed years were randomly selected from 1974 to 2004. Data were collected and analyzed with Spearman’s rho test and chi-square test to show the relationships and differences among the variables. This study found that there was a significant trend of increased use of photo illustrations and increase of space devoted to photo illustrations in the three combined newsmagazines in the past three decades. Also, labeling of photo illustrations became a iii mainstream practice after 1989. However, the majority of labels of photo illustrations were not easy to read and presented only minimum information to the readers. Nearly one fourth of the photo illustrations were presented in a realistic-looking style, and the subject categories illustrated by the photo illustrations were diversified over time. A distinct change in use of photo illustrations happened sometime during 1984 to 1989, which showed a sudden increase in frequency of using photo illustrations, labeling of photo illustrations, and usage of realistic-looking style for photo illustrations. These sudden changes might likely be contributed to the advance and rapid proliferation of digital imaging technology and media competition in that period of time. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Daniel Riffe Professor of Journalism iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I remember a saying I heard during a presentation ceremony long time ago: "There really is nothing called personal success, only collective achievement." I could not find any better description of what I feel about this heavy step I made. I am in many people’s debt to achieve this stage. First and foremost, I owe the biggest debt to my dissertation advisor Dr. Daniel Riffe; without his patient guidance, instruction, and encouragement throughout my long Ph.D. journey, I would definitely be a runaway child of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism. His scholarly essence and personality will always be in my mind and my guiding model. My gratitude also goes to the other three members of my dissertation committee Dr. Hugh Culbertson, Dr. Sandra Turner, and Professor Marcy Nighswander. Every piece of advice and suggestions they brought in from their different fields of expertise has led me into shaping my research to a better success. There is a Chinese proverb that says, “When you drink, remember the spring.” I am grateful to my first photography teacher Bin-kun Won who showed me the fascinating world of photography both inside and outside the darkroom. I also owe it to several mentors and teachers in my early learning stage of photojournalism who opened the door of visual reportage of the world before me. They are Ken Kobre, Jim McNay, Randy Olson and Melissa Farlow from University of Missouri-Columbia. It is their nurture of my understanding and growth in photojournalism that keeps my motivation going for all these years. v Finally, even though I have it all in my heart at all times, I would like to publicly express my deepest acknowledgement and gratefulness to my wife, Fung-ping (Phoebe), who spent countless days and nights with me struggling through the darkest abyss in my life. Her spiritual and physical assistance and her personal sacrifice in this heavy step of mine were beyond measure. This definitely would be the biggest debt in my life that I would be forever delighted to pay back. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 Credibility Decline Concerns .......................................................................................... 1 The Photo Illustration Controversy ............................................................................. 2 Previous Research on Photo Illustration ..................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...........................................................................10 History of Photo and Illustration .................................................................................. 10 Definition of Illustration ........................................................................................... 10 Earliest form of Illustration ....................................................................................... 10 Earliest Illustration Used in Printed News ................................................................ 10 Definition of Photography ........................................................................................ 11 Photography as a Documentary Tool ........................................................................ 12 Photography as an Illustrative Tool .......................................................................... 12 Earliest Photo Used in Printed Media ....................................................................... 13 Possible Origin of Photo Illustration ............................................................................ 13 Photomontage as a Political Tool ............................................................................. 13 Composograph Appeared in Newspaper................................................................... 14 vii Concept Photography Began in Advertising ............................................................. 14 The Arrival of Photo Illustration .................................................................................. 15 Concept Photography Used as Illustrative Editorial Photography............................ 15 The Legitimization of Photo Illustration ................................................................... 18 Problems Emerge with Photo Illustration ..................................................................... 18 The Labeling Argument ............................................................................................ 21 The Definition Argument .......................................................................................... 24 The Realistic-looking Argument ............................................................................... 28 Symbolic Strategies Theory ...................................................................................... 30 Attribution Theory .................................................................................................... 32 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 3: METHOD ...................................................................................................38 Research Design ........................................................................................................... 38 Sampling ....................................................................................................................... 38 Measurement ................................................................................................................. 39 Unit of Analysis ........................................................................................................ 39 Operational Definition .............................................................................................. 39 Variables to be Examined ........................................................................................