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Visual Communication 2005 Abstracts

Visual Communication Division

See It, Touch It, Taste It, Smell It, Hear It: The Use of Visual Metaphor in Sensory Advertising Strategy • Elizabeth Crisp, Tennessee, Knoxville • The purpose of this paper is to address visual metaphors as they relate to sensory appeals in magazine advertising. This research is important because very little research in the field has examined synesthetic images and visual metaphors in print advertising. This paper examines advertisements collected from five women’s magazines and applies the sensory visuals contained in these advertisements to a visual rhetoric model.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t: The Problems with Newspaper Photo Archives • Lucinda D. Davenport, Michigan State, Quint Randle, Brigham Young and Howard Bossen, Michigan State • This study systematically investigates the practices and policies of archiving and accessing images, now that most newspapers have gone digital. Findings from NPPA newspaper photographers, responding to multiple-choice and open-ended questions, show that policies and practices are in disarray. Photographers also are frustrated and concerned about digital technology becoming obsolete and what it means to historical records.

‘Naturally’ Less Exciting? Visual Production of Men’s And Women’s Track and Field Coverage During the 2004 Olympics • Casey Homan, Nevada-Reno, Marie Hardin, Penn State and Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • Using Zettl’s applied media aesthetics approach, visual production techniques were content analyzed in all track and field coverage in the 2004 Olympic Games. Segments featuring male athletes used more of everything: more time, more segments, more variation in camera shots, more variation in camera angles, more slow motion, and more use of rail-cam. The analysis shows that men’s track and field coverage was framed as more visually exciting than the same events for women.

A Matter of Culture: A Comparative Study of Photojournalism in American and Korean Newspapers • Yung Soo Kim and James D. Kelly, Southern Illinois, • The content of 628 news and feature photographs in ten elite American and Korean newspapers was analyzed for differences in composition, subject number, and subject identification. The Korean approach to photojournalism was purely descriptive while the American approach was more interpretive. Koreans presented far more news, emphasized the group, and maintained a consistent composition. Americans ran more features, emphasized the individual and varied composition. Differences were explained by culture, normative protocols, and differing media philosophies.

Identity-Centered Model of Visual Design: A Case Study of the 50 State Quarters® Program • Angela K. Mak and Suman M. Lee, Iowa State • We adopt Soenen and Moingeon’s (2002) dynamics of the identities of organizations model to demonstrate how the role of visual identity is treated as one of the components of collective identities (i.e. the projected identity) by showing how the creation of a state quarter can be seen as a crucial element that reflects the history of a state’s past, present, and future.

Reality vs. Fiction: How Defined Realness Affects Cognitive & Emotional Responses to Photographs • Andrew L. Mendelson and Zizi Papacharissi, Temple • This paper presents the results of an experiment investigating cognitive and emotional effects related to changing the label ascribed to still photographs, from fictional to real, while keeping the content constant. Results demonstrated that viewers tended to react more strongly to photographs labeled as real, but they thought more about photographs labeled as fiction. Further, the label assigned to the photograph interacted with viewer’s predisposition for learning from visual information.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Michael Moore, ‘W,’ & the Use of Montage as Political Strategy • Peter Morello, Missouri-Kansas City, David R. Thompson, Loras College and Birgit Wassmuth, Drake • This paper provides an overview of Michael Moore’s docu-activist techniques in his 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11. As the authors define in this paper, a “docu-activist” is a documentary filmmaker who employs what one German scholar of filmmaking describes as “demagogische montage” for the purpose of specific, deadline-oriented social or political change.

The Construction of American Military Identity in Mahjoob’s Cartoons after the Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal in Iraq: A Layered Exploratory Study • Orayb Aref Najjar, Northern Illinois • This study suggests that cartoons are important sites for the construction of the identity of the self and the “other.” Using techniques culled from various disciplines that include social psychology, cognition, anthropology in conjunction with the cartoon code, this study “constructs” an analytical table of “Instructed Viewing” (Goffman, 1979) to study the way cartoonist Emad Hajjaj constructed the identity of the American military in Iraq after the prison abuses of Abu Ghraib.

The Bloody Lens: A bibliographic Essay on Ethical Concerns Related to Shocking Images of Violence and Tragedy • Carol B. Schwalbe, Arizona State • For decades, scholars and journalists have discussed the ethics of disseminating shocking images of violence and tragedy. The proliferation of violent images in our 24/7 news-hungry society raises ethics-related questions for photographers, editors, and producers. This article reviews the literature on the ethics of digital photo alteration (truth telling); decisions faced by photographers, editors, and producers about images of violence and tragedy; and codes of ethics that provide guidance about disseminating grisly images.

Newsroom Attitudes Toward the Roles of Newspaper Designers • Kathryn J. Smith, Jennifer George-Palilonis, Pamela Leidig-Farmen and Mark Popovich, Ball State • While newspaper designers have taken on increasingly important roles in newsrooms, professional and academic literature points to a divide between “word” journalists and “visual” journalists. This study examined current attitudes toward this divide by using Q Methodology. Forty-one journalists at four Mid-western newspapers sorted 50 statements concerning attitudes about the responsibilities of designers and the value of design to the newspaper and its readers. Three factors emerged and were labeled: Collaborators, Progressives, and Traditionalists.

Images of the Casualties of War: Is there a Media Right of Access? • Nicole Elise Smith, North Carolina, Chapel Hill • At the onset of the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. Pentagon issued a policy prohibiting media coverage, including photography, of the caskets of slain American soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base. This research asks, based on the unique attributes of images to convey information, is the ban an unconstitutional prior restraint? Additionally, as some families want photographic coverage of the return of their loved ones, does the restriction violate these families First Amendment rights?

Assessing Pictorial-projective and Photo-elicited Responses to Commercials • Lawrence Soley, Marquette • Photoelicitation and projective assessment are research methods derived from visual sociology and psychoanalysis respectively. This study combined the methods by having respondents view a commercial, and then showing them one of two versions of a projective drawing showing a lone or a male-accompanied woman sitting on a couch. Respondents were told that the woman in the drawing had just seen the commercial, and were asked about what the woman was thinking.

‘When May I Expect my Uniform?’ The World Through Chicago Political Cartoons Before and after Pearl Harbor • Fred Vultee, Missouri-Columbia • As December 1941 began, the Chicago Tribune and the Daily News were reporting two different wars: one America desperately needed to avoid, one it was duty-bound to enter. But when the presses rolled December 7, the Roosevelt-hating Tribune found itself uncomfortably aligned with its rival (owned by Roosevelt-hating Navy secretary).

Visual Representation of Villainy: Comparing Editorial Cartoons of Bin Laden, McVeigh and Kim • Samuel P. Winch, Penn State Harrisburg • This paper reports the results of a content analysis of editorial cartoons featuring Osama bin Laden, Timothy McVeigh, and North Korean President Kim Jong-Il. The elements of editorial cartoons of public enemies are examined as examples of rhetorically persuasive techniques in visual depiction.

Manipulating Visual Information in the Digital Age: How viewers React on Digitally Altered and Manipulative Captioned Photographic Images: Results of a Quasi-Experimental Study • Kathrin Ziegler and Klaus Forster, Munich • In our study we explore how digitally altered and manipulative captioned pictures are perceived by the viewers. We regard image perception as a first necessary step toward any kind of possible effects. Our findings suggest that viewers were not able to recognize differences between differently manipulated pictures with regard to their credibility on a cognitive level. On the emotional level the viewers could therefore be effectively manipulated with both captions and altered photos.

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