This thesis examined the utility of using seven characteristics of newspapers--specifically 46 Indiana newspapers--to predict how these newspapers use photographs.To this end, a composite index of picture use was developed from multiple measures of the source, content and play of newspaper photographs appearing during a composite week representing March 1985. This index, used as a criterion variable, was regressed on seven specific characteristics of the sample newspapers. These characteristics were: (1) newspaper circulation; (2) editorial and (3) photography staff size; (4) use of a photography editor; (5) the experience of the person primarily responsible for the use of photographs; and the (6) age and (7) time of publication of a newspaper.It was concluded: The size of the photography staff (beta = -0.33) and the use of a photography editor (beta = 0.38) were both practical and significant predictors of picture use by the sampled newspapers (R2 = 0.24, p <_0.05). It was also concluded: Circulation, editorial staff size, time of publication, the experience of the person primarily responsible for the use of photographs, and the age of a newspaper were neither practical nor significant predictors of picture use by the sampled newspapers.Two profiles were developed in the course of this thesis. The first profile describes the typical daily Indiana newspaper based on data collected from 46 of 65 Indiana newspapers. In this profile, the typical Indiana newspaper is described as: A morning newspaper that has been published for approximately 107 years and which employs 16 editorial staff members and two photographers in the production of a newspaper with an approximate daily circulation of 17,400 copies.The second profile describes how Indiana newspapers typically used photographs during the sample period. In this profile it was reported that newspapers used an average of one photograph on each page of the newspaper--pages devoted either mostly (greater than 50 percent) or solely to editorial copy--and that the mean size of these photographs was approximately 18.5 square inches. A little more than 64 percent of all of the photographs appearing in the sample newspapers were taken by an in-house photography staff. Of these locally produced photographs, 43.5 percent were classified as news photographs while an additional 23 percent were considered to be feature photographs. / Department of Journalism

In 1990, George Gladney looked at 230 of the nation's largest dailies to see the influence of USA Today. He determined a score for each paper by looking at five categories: color; pictures and graphics; trivia and fluff; brevity, capsulization and promotion; and complexity and depth. After he determined scores for each paper, he ranked them and divided them into adopters and non-adopters. Even though two papers scored above USA Today, he found that most newspapers had a long way to go before they would look like USA Today. He also found that chain-owned papers tended more to be adopters than non-adopters.This researcher duplicated his study using 34 papers with more than 50,000 daily circulation in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Using Gladney's scoring system, the papers were given scores according to certain criteria. Some categories were further divided. The trivia and fluff category was divided into celebrity coverage, sports coverage and weather. The brevity, complexity and depth category was subdivided into text six inches or less and summaries, indices and promotions. The complexity and depth category was divided into lead sentence length and the length of the longest page 1 stories.Newspapers were divided into groups: "adopters" and "non-adopters" of the USA Today style. This study found that eight of the 34 papers were non-adopters and five were adopters.Eight papers scored above USA Today. This study showed that neither the adopter nor the non-adopter group had the majority of the newspapers. USA Today fell in between these groups making it part of the norm.There was a correlation between chain-owned newspapers and adopting the USA Today style. This study did not support Gladney's original conclusion that smallercirculation newspapers tended to be more adopting of the USA Today style. As newspaper circulations decreased, newspaper scores did not increase. Larger newspapers were not more resistant to the USA Today style. / Department of Journalism

An Examination of Print and Web Graphics’ Effect on Readers’ Recall Specific research regarding how information graphics, which are defined as charts, maps or diagrams, in print and online affect readers’ recall and understanding of information is scarce at best and at times, even contradictory. Previous print research suggests that information graphics does improve readers’ recall. Online graphics research notes that the freedom of the Web allows readers to learn more efficiently than traditional media. While, other research notes that the Web’s freedom causes users to spend more effort on orienting themselves with the Web site, and therefore, users don’t learn efficiently. This study examined whether the presentation of information graphics affects readers’ recall and found no statistical significance between readers’ recall scores who had read a print graphic and those who read an online graphic. / Department of Journalism

The purpose of the research was to look at how editors at Gannett, America's largest newspaper chain, perceive the role of journalism graphics and graphic artists in the newsroom.Nineteen editors from newspapers of various circulation sizes, participated from across the country. They sorted Q statements that covered areas related to journalism graphics as: use of color, balancing graphics with other content, graphics relationship with design, reader needs, and how graphics serve literacy.An analysis of the Q statements collected for this study showed two distinct factor types. They were identified by this researcher as the Communitarians and the Zealots.The Communitarians were characterized as trying to balance graphics with other aspects of journalism such as story, photo and design in an attempt to put the reader first. They were unwilling to elevate graphics to a necessity in presenting a story. The Communitarians saw graphics as one tool among many to conveyinformation.The Zealots saw graphics as an absolute necessity for any worthy journalistic endeavor. They saw graphics as the answer to attracting young readers, to serving a population with literacy issues, and to enhancing any work the newspaper is doing. The Zealots rejected statements that did not show graphics in the most positive way.Two camps emerged within the Gannett ranks regarding journalism graphics. The Zealots hold on to the allure of color and graphics made popular by USA Today in the 1980s and early 1990s. Communitarians acknowledged that graphics are an effective tool, but considered the practice of similar importance with other methods of conveying information. / Department of Journalism

My dissertation looks at a pivotal point in the history of the news image (c.1840 to 1860), when wood engraving and steam-powered printing presses transformed the genre into a mass medium that reached hundreds of thousands of readers. Using the format of the monograph and the work of French artist Constantin Guys, I argue that despite the advent of photography and other reproductive visual techniques, drawing formed the backbone of the new authority of the mass-produced news image. To make this case, I locate Guys’s drawings within a wide range of other tactics of transcription that made the printing of text and image possible––including stenography and printing telegraphy––to contextualize the strange persistence of this manual medium within the increasingly mechanized armature of the illustrated newspaper. As a study of the formation of trust in the news image at a moment of momentous technological change, my project identifies a vital origin point for pressing questions related to the truth and objectivity of the news in our contemporary moment, and places mid-nineteenth-century drawing at its center.