Discussion and Conclusion
8.4 Final remarks
The primary research question of this dissertation concerns the maintenance and projection of visual journalistic professionalism through visual representation in the context of the opportunities and challenges posed by media convergence. This question is asked with the assumption that visual transmediation in journalism is essentially a field with a weak academic grounding, with little attention by academics to how the way that newspapers are presented. It has been taken for granted in print newspapers and digital platforms, though newspapers communicate ideas, mood and style not only through written texts but also through visual design. By the end of my fieldwork in the Design Department of the Helsingin Sanomat newsroom, Petri Salmén, a graphic producer of the four-person information design team, expressed his
189
appreciation. He said, “No one has paid so much attention to our work. We feel curious but happy that you joined us here for some time, though you are just sitting beside and making your own research.”
This dissertation investigates how the visual information structure of news websites is framed, taking insights from the visual representation to the reproduction issues relevant to the practitioners’ work. In addition to the findings of the four articles, the overall conclusion of the dissertation is that visual transmediation is a prevailing feature of the visual journalists’
professional life that is frequently mobilised to serve the function of multimedia delivery. It is engaged on an institutional level to protect journalistic values, specific design skills and the news organisation’s identity. Visual journalistic professionalism can therefore be conceptualised within the specific newsroom as well as visual production.
As a researcher with academic interests in both journalism and design, I found the exploration of this interdisciplinary field challenging and interesting.
Researchers introduced to graphic design may occasionally wonder about the value of pursuing painstaking analyses of everyday communicative situations in journalism, while researchers in other fields may also find some insights on visual journalism and visual reproduction on multimedia platforms.
Extending the visual journalistic input vocabulary through identifying specific newsroom practices has been demonstrated to be a valuable approach. A potential benefit is the prospection of communication between practitioners during visual transmediation, while bounded by technological, organisational and institutional values. I believe that a careful examination of these ideas can reveal important aspects of our capability to manage complex visual practices in newsroom life, for both visual journalists and reporters.
Although the approaches used to gather the research data provided interesting results and raised awareness of visual journalism in the newsroom, they bring further thinking about the research objects. Aiming to improve the relationship between visuals and texts in news websites, this dissertation highlighted the communication between visual journalists (people dealing with visuals) and reporters (people dealing with texts), thus allowing readers to become aware of visual transmediation from the visual journalist’s perspective.
This offers the potential to extend the current study of visual journalism in the domains of visual output and audience feedback to other digital platforms.
Furthermore, this research can be beneficial to researchers, practitioners and others with an interest in visual journalism. Learning about the importance of communication design for news websites, whether on digital platforms or
190
in physical working environments, increases our understanding of the visual transmediation process. Visual journalists do not deal with visualisation only. A visual journalist with little concept of journalistic obligations, the social context of the field and the possibilities for or limitations of the latest forms of visual journalistic practice may well do the newsroom more harm than good.
This research is not a manual for visual journalism students, as the main goal was to depict how ‘things’ are and what they mean, rather than to provide vocational instructions. The methodological steps that I used and suggested in this dissertation prepare the foundation for obtaining a general picture of the visual transmediation phenomenon from print newspapers to news websites while maintaining the space to enter this field from other perspectives.
191
References
Abraham, L. (2001, September). Defining visual communication in the new media environment. Paper presented to the 2001 AEJMC Annual Convention, Washington, DC. Retrieved from <http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/
wa?A2=ind0109B&L=aejmc&P=R2>.
Adami, E. (2014). What’s in a click? A social semiotic framework for the multimodal analysis of website interactivity. Visual Communication, 14(2), 133–153.
Aldiabat, K. & Le Navenec, C. L. (2011). Clarification of the blurred boundaries between grounded theory and ethnography: Differences and similarities.
Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 2(3), 1–13.
Allen, J. E. (1936). Newspaper Makeup. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Allen, J. E. (1947). Newspaper Designing. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Almeida, H. (2016). From comics to biology diagrams: Structure and inference in visual narratives of transformation. Visual Communication, 16(1), 85–108.
Altheide, D. L. & Snow, R. P. (1991). Media worlds in the postjournalism era.
Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Baer, K. & Vacarra, J. (2008). Information design workbook. Osceola: Rockport.
Bardoel, J. & Deuze, M. (2001). Network journalism: Converging competences of media professionals and professionalism. Australian Journalism Review, 23(2), 91–103.
Baur, D. (2017). The death of interactive infographics? Retrieved from <https://
52c585dcafcb>.
Bateman, J. A. (2008). Multimodality and genre: A foundation for the systematic analysis of multimodal documents. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bateman, J. A., Wildfeuer, J. & Hiippala, T. (2017). Multimodality: Foundations, research and analysis. A problem-oriented introduction. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Bateman, J., Delin, J. & Henschel, R. (2007). Mapping the multimodal genres of traditional and electronic newspapers. In Royce, T. & Bowcher, W. (Eds.), New directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Beckman, R. (1998). Managing change: A discussion with visual journalists and newsroom managers on the challenges and opportunities created by changing technologies. Paper presented to the 1998 Journalism Educators’ Seminar, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, FL.
Bertin, J. (1983). Semiology of graphics: Diagrams, networks, maps. Madison:
192
University of Wisconsin Press.
Björkroth, T. & Grönlund, M. (2014). The growth of leading regional newspapers.
Nordicom Review, 35(1), 115–133.
Boeriis, M. & Holsanova, J. (2012). Tracking visual segmentation: Connecting semiotic and cognitive perspectives. Visual communication, 11(3), 259–281.
Brusila, R. (2015). Design structures and meanings. In Brusila, R.,
Henriksson, A. K. & Vanhanen, H. (Eds.), Integrated media in change, pp. 37–
43. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press.
Bucher, H. J. & Niemann, P. (2012). Visualising science: The reception of powerpoint presentations. Visual Communication, 11(3), 283–306.
Coates, K. & Ellison, A. (2014). Introduction to information design. London:
Laurence King Publishing.
Cohn, N. (2013). Visual narrative structure. Cognitive Science, 34, 413–452.
Cottle, S. & Ashton, M. (1999). From BBC newsroom to BBC newscentre: On changing technology and journalist practices. Convergence, 5(3), 22–43.
Dahlgren, P. (1996). Media logics in cyberspace: Repositioning journalism and its publics. Javnost/The Public, 3(3), 59–71.
Dailey, L., Demo, L. & Spillman, M. (2003). The convergence continuum: A model for studying collaboration between media newsrooms. Paper submitted to the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Kansas City, Missouri.
Davis, C. & Craft, S. (2000). New media synergy: Emergence of institutional conflicts of interest. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 15(4), 219–231.
Davis, M. & Quinn, D. (2014). Visualising text: The new literacy of infographics.
Reading Today, 31(3), 16–18.
Deuze, M. (2004). What is multimedia journalism? Journalism Studies, 5(2), 139–
152.
Deuze, M. (2017). Considering a possible future for digital journalism. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación / Mediterranean Journal of Communication, 8(1), 9–18.
Deuze, M. & Dimoudi, C. (2002). Online journalists in The Netherlands:
Towards a profile of a new profession. Journalism, 3(1), 103–118.
D’ Haenens, L., Jankowski, N. & Heuvelman, A. (2004). News in online and print newspapers: Differences in reader consumption and recall. New Media &
Society, 6(3), 363–382.
Dick, M. (2014). Interactive infographics and news values. Digital Journalism, 2(4), 490–506.
Domingo, D., Salaverría, R. & Aguado, J. M. (2007). Four dimensions of journalistic
193
convergence: A preliminary approach to current media trends at Spain. Paper presented at the 8th International Symposium on Online Journalism, Austin Texas. Retrieved from <https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/19586/1/com unicacioAustinInfotendenciasMarDomingo.pdf>.
Domingo, D. & Paterson, C. (Eds.). (2011). Making online news (2nd eds.). New York:
Peter Lang Publishing.
Dupagne, M. & Garrison, B. (2006). The meaning and influence of convergence:
A qualitative case study of newsroom work at the Tampa News Centre.
Journalism Studies, 7(2), 237–255.
Engelhardt, Y. (2007). Syntactic structures in graphics. In Schirra, J. R. J. (Ed.), Image – Zeitschrift für Interdiziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, 5, 23–35.
Erdal, I. J. (2007). Negotiating convergence in news production. In Tanja, S.
& Dagny, S. (Eds.), Ambivalence towards convergence, pp. 73–85. Gothenburg:
Nordicom.
Erdal, I. J. (2009a). Cross-media (re)production cultures. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 15(2), 215–231.
Erdal, I. J. (2009b). Repurposing of content in multi-platform news production:
Towards a typology of cross-media journalism. Journalism Practice, 3(2), 178–
195.
Erdal, I. J. (2011). Coming to terms with convergence journalism: Cross-media as a theoretical and analytical concept. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 17 (2), 213–223.
Flew, T. (2017). Media convergence. Retrieved from <https://www.britannica.com/
topic/media-convergence>. [Accessed 12 October 2017]
Franchi, F. (2013). Designing news: Changing the world of editorial design and information graphics. Berlin: Gestalten.
Frau-Meigs, D. (2007). Convergence, Internet governance and cultural diversity.
In Storsul, T. & Stuedahl, D. (Eds.), Ambivalence towards Convergence:
Digitalisation and Media Change. Göteborg: Nordicom.
Friendly, M. (2009). Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization. Retrieved from <http://www.math.yorku.ca/
SCS/Gallery/milestone/milestone.pdf>.
Ganci, A. & Lahey, M. (2017). Uncovering the importance of soft skills in user interface design-related fields. Communication Design, 5(1-2), 5–20.
Garcia, M. & Stark, P. (1991). Eyes on the news. St. Petersburg, FL: The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
García Avilés, J. A. & Carvajal, M. (2008). Integrated and cross-media newsroom convergence: Two models of multimedia news production – the cases of
194
Novotécnica and La Verdad Multimedia in Spain. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 14(2), 221–239.
García-Avilés, J. A., Kaltenbrunner, A. & Meier, K. (2014). Media convergence revisited: Lessons learned on newsroom integration in Austria, Germany and Spain. Journalism Practice, 8(5), 573–584.
Geidner, N., Pjesivac, I., Imre, I., Coman, I. & Yuran, D. (2015). The role of interactive graphics in reducing misperceptions in the electorate. Visual Communication Quarterly, 22(3), 133–145.
George-Palilonis, J. & Spillman, M. (2011). Interactive graphics development:
A framework for studying innovative visual story forms. Visual Communication Quarterly, 18(3), 167–177.
Gitner, S. (2016). Multimedia storytelling for digital communicators in a multiplatform world. New York: Routledge.
Gustafson, K. L. & Kenix, L. J. (2016). Visually framing press freedom and responsibility of a massacre: Photographic and graphic images in Charlie Hebdo’s newspaper front pages around the world. Visual Communication Quarterly, 23(3), 147–160.
Harris, C. R. (2002). Documentary assignments. In Harris, C. R. & Lester, P. M.
(Eds.), Visual journalism: A guide for new media professionals. Chapter 5. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon.
Harris, W. (2007). The Golden Mean. Retrieved from <http://community.
middlebury.edu/~harris/Humanities/TheGoldenMean.html>. [Accessed 3 March 2014]
Henderson, J. M. (2007). Regarding scenes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(4), 219–222.
Hermann, A. K. (2016). Ethnographic journalism. Journalism, 17(2), 260–278.
Hiippala, T. (2012). Reading paths and visual perception in multimodal research, psychology and brain sciences. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(3), 315–327.
Holsanova, J. (2012). New methods for studying visual communication and multimodal integration. Visual communication, 11(3), 251–257.
Holton, A. & Molyneux, L. (2017). Identity lost? The personal impact of brand journalism. Journalism, 18(2), 195–210.
Hoogslag, N. (2014). On the Persistence of a Modest Medium. The Role of Editorial Illustration in Print and Online Media. Ph. D dissertation. London: The Royal College of Art.
Huang, E., Rademakers, L., Fayemiwo, M. A. & Dunlap, L. (2004). Converged journalism and quality: A case study of The Tampa Tribune news stories.
Convergence, 10(4), 73–91.
195
Hujanen, J. & Pietikäinen, S. (2004). Interactive uses of journalism: Crossing between technological potential and young people’s news-using practices.
New Media & Society, 6(3), 383–401.
Jacobson, S., Marino, J. & Gutsche, Jr., R. E. (2016). The digital animation of literary journalism. Journalism, 17(4), 527–546.
Jenkins, H. (2004). The cultural logics of media convergence. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7(1), 33–43.
Jewitt, C., Bezemer, J. & O’Halloran, K. (2016). Introducing multimodality. London:
Routledge.
Kennedy, H., Hill, R. L., Aiello, G. & Allen, W. (2016). The work that visualisation conventions do. Information, Communication & Society, 19(6), 715–735.
Kosslyn, S. M. (2006). Graph design for the eye and mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kovacs, K. (2016). How to engage readers with digital longform journalism. Retrieved from studies/engaging-longform-journalism/>. [Accessed 18 May 2017]
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design.
London: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. New York: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2014). Design: The rhetorical work of shaping the semiotic world. In Archer, A. & Newfield, D. (Eds.), Multimodal approaches to research and pedagogy: Recognition, resources, and access. London: Routledge.
Lamberg, J. J. J. (2015). Clothing the Paper. On the State of Newspaper Design, Redesigns, and Art Directors’ Perspectives in Contemporary Quality and Popular Newspapers. Ph. D dissertation. Reading: University of Reading.
Lammes, S. (2017). Digital mapping interfaces: From immutable mobiles to mutable images. New Media & Society, 19(7), 1019–1033.
Larrondo, A., Domingo, D., Erdal, I. J., Masip, P. & van den Bulck, H. (2016).
Opportunities and limitations of newsroom convergence. Journalism Studies, 17(3), 277–300.
Larsson, A. O. (2012). Understanding nonuse of interactivity in online newspapers: Insights from structuration theory. The Information Society, 28(4), 253–263.
Lehtisaari, K., Karppinen, K., Harjuniemi, T., Grönlund, M., Lindén, C. G., Nieminen, H. & Viljakainen, A. (2012). Media convergence and business models:
Responses of Finnish daily newspapers. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.
196
Lievrouw, L. A. & Livingstone, S. M. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of new media: Social shaping and consequences of ICTs. London: Sage.
Lowrey, W. (1999). Routine news: The power of the organisation in visual journalism. Visual Communication Quarterly, 6(2), 10–15.
Macdonald-Ross, M. (1989) Towards a graphic ecology. In Mandl, H. & Levin, J.R.
(Eds.), Knowledge Acquisition from Text and Pictures, pp. 145–154. Holland: Elzevier Science.
Macken-Horarik, M. (2004). Interacting with the multimodal text: Reflections on image and verbiage in ArtExpress. Visual Communication, 3(1), 5–26.
MAF (2014). Kansallinen Mediatutkimus (National Readership Survey). Media Audit Finland, formerly Levikintarkastus (Finnish Audit Bureau of
Circulations). Retrieved from <http://mediaauditfinland.fi>. [Accessed 18 September 2018]
Martin, B. & Ringham, F. (2000). Dictionary of semiotics. London, New York:
Cassell.
Mitchelstein, E. & Boczkowski, P. J. (2009). Between tradition and change: A review of recent research on online news production. Journalism, 10(5), 562–
586.
Morris, C. W. (1957). Foundations of the theory of signs. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Mortensen, T. B. & Keshelashvili, A. (2013). If everyone with a camera can do this, then what? Professional photojournalists’ sense of professional threat in the face of citizen photojournalism. Visual Communication Quarterly, 20(3), 144–
158.
Moys, J. L. (2017). Visual rhetoric in information design: Designing for credibility and engagement. In Black, A., Luna, P., Lund, O. & Walker, S. (Eds.),
Information design: Research and practice, pp. 204–220. London: Routledge.
Müller, M. G., Kappas, A. & Olk, B. (2012). Perceiving press photography: A new integrative model, combing iconology with psychophysiological and eye tracking methods. Visual Communication, 11(3), 307–328.
Näsi, A. (2015). The reader’s image: Amateur photographs in the Finnish newspaper. In Brusila, R., Juntti-Henriksson, A. K. & Vanhanen, H. (Eds.), Integrated media in change, pp. 111–131. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press.
Nieminen, H. (2010). The unravelling Finnish media policy consensus. In Levy, D.
A. L. & Nielsen, R. K. (Eds.), The changing business of journalism and its implications for democracy. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
O’Halloran, K., Tan, S., Smith, B. & Podlasov, A. (2010). Challenges in designing
197
digital interfaces for the study of multimodal phenomena. Information Design Journal, 18(1), 2–21.
Picard, R. & Grönlund, M. (2003, August). A 50year business history of the Finnish newspaper industry. Paper presented at the 15th Nordic Conference of Media and Communication Research, Kristiansand, Norway.
Pink, S. (2011). Multimodality, multisensoriality and ethnographic knowing:
Social semiotics and the phenomenology of perception. Qualitative Research, 11(3), 261–276.
Pettersson, R. (2002). Information design. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
Pettersson, R. (2017). Gestalt principles: Opportunities for designers. In Black, A., Luna, P., Lund, O. & Walker, S. (Eds.), Information design: Research and practice, pp.
425–434. London: Routledge.
Reason, R. (2008). The elements of style(books) and why every newspaper or website needs a design guide. Retrieved from <http://www.ronreason.com/style.html>.
[Accessed 13 April 2017]
Reavy, M. (2003). Rules and the real world: An examination of information graphics in Time and Newsweek. Visual Communication Quarterly, 10(4), 4–10.
Salimi, M., Masoud, A. & Mazaheri, A. (2011). A survey on factors influencing the use of news graphics in Iranian online media. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 68(15), 174–178.
Sandelowski, M. (2000). Focus on research methods whatever happened to qualitative description. Research in Nursing and Health, 23(4), 334–340.
Sanomalehtien Liitto. (2016). Vuosikertomus 2016. Retrieved from <https://www.
sanomalehdet.fi/sanomalehtien-liitto/vuosikertomus-2016>. [Accessed 24 March 2017]
Schmieder, K. (2016). The importance of quality for the accommodation of amateur photographs in the professional news media. Visual Communication Quarterly, 23(3), 161–174.
Schroeder, R. (2004). Interactive info graphics in Europe – added value to online mass media: A preliminary survey. Journalism Studies, 5(4), 563–570.
Scolari, C. A. (2009). Transmedia storytelling: Implicit consumers, narrative worlds, and branding in contemporary media production. International Journal of Communication, 3, 586–606.
Shoemaker, P. J. & Vos, T. P. (2009). Gatekeeping Theory. New York: Routledge.
Silverman, C. (2015). The best practices for innovation within news organisations.
Retrieved from <https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/
publications/reports/strategy-studies/best-practices-for-innovation/?utm_
source=website&utm_medium=footer&utm_campaign=20150610>. [Accessed
198
14 April 2017]
Staff, C. (2014). Visualisations make big data meaningful: New techniques are designed to translate “invisible numbers” into visible images.
Communications of the ACM, 57(6), 19–21.
Stone, M. & Bierhoff, J. (2002). The state of multimedia newsrooms in Europe.
Retrieved from <http://cmsw.mit.edu/mit2/Abstracts/JanBierhoff.pdf>.
[Accessed 19 March 2017]
Storsul, T. & Stuedahl, D. (Eds.). (2007). Ambivalence towards convergence:
Digitalisation and media change. Göteborg: Nordicom.
Stöckl, H. (2004). In between modes: Language and image in printed media. In Ventola, E., Charles, C. & Kaltenbacher, M. (Eds.), Perspectives on
multimodality. Chapter 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
The New York Times. (2009). Talk to the newsroom: Interactive news
collaborative. Retrieved from <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/
media/19askthetimes.html>.
Tufte, E. R. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire:
Graphics Press.
Tufte, E. R. (1994). Envisioning information. Cheshire: Graphics Press.
van der Haak, B., Parks, M. & Castells, M. (2012). The future of journalism:
Networked journalism. International Journal of Communication, 6, 2923–2938.
van den Bulck, H. & Tambuyzer, S. (2013). Collisions of convergence: Flemish news workers’ and management’s perceptions of the impact of PSB
newsroom integration on journalistic practices and identities. International Communication Gazette, 75(1), 54–75.
van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Multimodality, genre and design. In Norris, S. & Jones, R. (Eds.), Discourse in action – Introducing mediated discourse analysis, pp. 73–
94. London: Routledge.
van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Towards a semiotics of typography. Information Design Journal + Document Design, 14(2), 139–155.
Ventola, E., Charles, C. & Kaltenbacher, M. (Eds.). (2004). Perspectives on multimodality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
Wallace, S. (2013). The complexities of convergence: Multi-skilled journalists working in BBC regional multimedia newsrooms. International
Communication Gazette, 75 (1), 99–117.
Waller, R. (2012). Graphic literacies for a digital age: The survival of layout. The Information Society, 28(4), 236–252.
Weber, W. (2017). Interactive information graphics: A framework for classifying a visual genre. In Black, A., Luna, P., Lund, O. & Walker, S. (Eds.), Information
199
design: Research and practice, pp. 243–256. London: Routledge.
Wertheimer, M. (1938). Laws of organisation in perceptual forms. In Ellis, W. (Ed.), A source book of Gestalt psychology, pp. 71–88. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Whitehead, T. L. (2005). Basic classical ethnographic research methods: Secondary data analysis, fieldwork, observation/participant observation, and informal and semi-structured interviewing. Retrieved from <http://www.cusag.umd.edu/
documents/workingpapers/classicalethnomethods.pdf>.
Zavoina, S. & Reichert, T. (2000). Media convergence/management change: The evolving workflow for visual journalists. Journal of Media Economics, 13(2), 143–151.