NEWSPAPER
DESIGN
Looking at journalism as an art and science of gathering of news or information, you will see that the information is presented in a unique format. The style in which information are disseminated through newspaper and magazines are quiet different to the ways information is disseminated on books, journals, billboards e.t.c. Also the style at which information are been broadcast on radio, television and the internet is quiet different from the way it is been disseminated on movie and theatre. This is achieve through a unique graphical design and layout.
According to wikipedia the free encyclopaedia states that Newspaper design is the process of arranging material on a newspaper page, according to editorial and graphical guidelines and goals. Main editorial goals include the ordering of news stories by order of importance, while graphical considerations include readability and balanced, unobtrusive incorporation of advertising.
Samson Ademagba Sambe (2011) says, newspaper design is the general rules govern the appearance of a publication; these rules include general page format, type font and size, styles for by-lines, cutlines, photographs, graphs e.t.c.
Its can also be defined as the design of a newspaper page or the manner in which pictures, headlines and news stories are arranged on a page. The objectives of newspaper makeup areas follows: to indicate the importance of the news, to make the page easy to read and to make the page attractive.
Newspaper design communication is thus the coordinatives aspect of communication that enables fragmented elements to work in tandem and or show a dependence on each other. E.g. Photographs, cutlines, headlines, pullouts and graphics.
Newspaper design choices are made to give the publication a be-spoke identity to appeal to its target audience. There is a commercial need to ensure that design facilitates the publication having a distinct brand identity. However each edition must not look identical or the potential purchaser or reader will be deterred, thinking nothing new is being offered. A noticeable example is The Daily Mail’s hugely successful, modular structure, gothic standing head and use of front page pictures.
The era of modern newspapers begins in the mid-nineteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution, and increased capacities for printing and distribution. Over time, improvements in printing technology, graphical design, and editorial standards have led to changes and improvements in the look and readability of newspapers. Nineteenth-century newspapers were often densely packed with type, often arranged vertically, with multiple headlines for each article. A number of the same technological limitations persisted until the advent of digital typesetting and pagination in late 20th century. Process Designers typically use desktop publishing software to arrange the elements on the pages directly.
With the advent of new powerful presses that could print between 50,000 and 100,000 complete copies in one hour. They were also able to create the first “pictorial” newspapers that included illustrations created by wood cut engravings and the newly invented photograph. By the 1890's there were over 11,000 newspapers in print in USA. This popular form of journalism now included bold new modern features including banner headlines, extensive use of illustrations and the funny pages. The use of caricature became popular and was used often to present political views. If you look in newspapers today, you will still see this form of illustration is still popular.
In the past, before digital pre-press pagination, designers used precise "lay out dummies" to direct the exact layout of elements for each page. A complete layout dummy was required for designating proper column widths by which a typesetter would set type, and arrange columns of text. Layout also required the calculation of lengths of copy (text in "column inches"), for any chosen width. Much of the variance and incoherence of early newspapers was due to the fact that last minute corrections were exclusively handled by typesetters. With photographic printing process, typesetting gave way to paste-up, whereby columns of type were printed by machines (phototypesetters) on high- resolution film for paste-up on photographed final prints. These prints in turn were "shot to negative" with a large format production camera —directly to steel-emulsion photographic plates. Though paste-up put an end to cumbersome typesetting, this still required planned layouts and set column widths. Photographic plates are (still) wrapped on printing drums to directly apply ink to newsprint (paper). In the mid-1990s, the paste-up process gave way to the direct to plate process, where computer-paginated files were optically transmitted directly to the photographic plate. Replacing several in-between steps in newspaper production, direct to plate pagination allowed for much more flexibility and precision than before. Designers today still used column grid layouts only with layout software, such as Adobe InDesign or Quark.
Graphic design in newspapers are often over looked by the public and journalists who tend to be more interested in the stories, articles and other features; but how a newspaper is designed graphically can make a difference to the reader. Most editors in do not care much about the design of their papers as long as they can produce whenever they can, but graphic design is a very important aspect of newspaper production, as the presentation and layout gives more interest to the reader thereby increasing sales.
The reason why graphic design is overlooked in the country is because the readership doesn’t have much alternative or they are not fait with modern technologies so they buy any paper irrespective of its presentation. Although headlines are what get readers attention, the layout of the paper, graphics, and photographs are important to keep a readers attention. Without the use of illustrations, a paper would be a jumble of words that can create monotony and boredom for the reader. In developed countries, graphics, layout and pictures are very important as it gives the readerships more pleasure in buying and reading the paper. Most news readers in England want to read the sun because it satisfies all the components to make a good newspaper, especially their pictures.
Some papers would not have a strong lead story all the time, but they still have the highest sales because of their layout and graphics. In the early days of newspaper, across the world, the production was a mere letter, but these early papers still were able to enjoy the market as there were few papers and almost everybody wants to know what is going on around him. The industrial revolution around 1850 saw newspapers began to transform into the media that we recognise today.
Newspaper design today is so advanced that anyone can create his or her own newspaper from a computer. There are hundreds of types to work with, templates, layout designs, so what is the challenge in today’s small newspapers and what is preventing them from creating exciting new looks. This is why everybody now wants to be a publisher and everyday a newspaper is being registered.
We have to get more training in graphic design as newspaper editors are trained in journalism and not graphic design. Even though they may have been exposed to some form of this education while in school, it is not where they spent much of their time learning. So the individuals responsible for making decisions for the overall look of a paper should have the skills of graphic designing.
More emphasis is being placed on newspaper design and graphics than ever before. Most American newspapers have made changes in their appearance in hopes of attracting more readers and holding on to the ones they already have. While research on publication design has been conducted for quite some time, more research is being done as the importance of graphics to the survival of many newspapers grows. Traditionally, emphasis has been placed on reporting the major stories of the day and getting them first and right. And, traditionally, that has been enough to attract the readers that the newspaper industry needs to survive. Means to increase declining readership and circulation have included anything from increased local coverage to special promotions and discounts. Now, however, more attention is being paid to newspaper design-more specifically, making the front page look good, to increase reader satisfaction and circulation. Readers still want hard-hitting, responsible journalism, but they also want a product that is appealing to the eye.
Sambe (2011) emphasised that, newspaper design helps organise and compress information, so they are especially important for newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. His discussion was based on general graphics design. He says that every graphic elements should help your medium reach it goals. For example, design graphics makes reading more efficient for been separated and highlighted. They call on direct attention, signal the importance of an article, and break the monotony of solid text. Graphic design reinforce text by repeating or elaborating on information.
In reading newspapers, magazines or newsletters, through readers make decisions based on headlines, photographs, secondary display type and general layout. Newspaper design determines how type and other visual elements appear on page. Newspaper design include; formats, type specification and rendering of items, such as the name plate and mast head, that appears in every issues of newsletters, newspapers or the magazines.
Beach (1999:74) makes contents (be it newspaper, newsletter, or magazines) accessible. He says that, newspaper design can stimulate interest and make reading efficient, but design cannot camouflage thoughtless content or careless writing. Good newspaper design thus presuppose that elements appears organised to make reading pleasant and efficient.
Newspaper reporters sometimes resent the uses of graphic design because the take up space, forcing stories to be shorten. But good graphic design add to the visual appeal of the newspaper, attract readers' attention, and make the stories more understandable. The help reporters' stories, rather than take away from them. It must have a purpose. Filling empty space or airtime is not a sufficient reason for using a graphic or a design. A design should enhance the reader or viewer understanding of the story, which means the editor must fully understand the story before designing or choosing a graphic to go along with it. The graphic artist usually produce the visual images; the role of the editor is to conceptualise the graphic or design, find the information it should contain or illustrate and ascertain its accuracy.
Newspaper design can convey basic facts or illustration a process. Imagine you are reporting on air pollution in your country. A map could be used to show where the air is most unhealthy. An illustration could be used to show how air pollution affects the lungs. Both types of graphics work just as well for broadcast as they do for the print.
Whatever the medium, avoid design or graphics that are crammed with too much information. The reader or viewer should be able to look at the graphic and take away one basic idea. Think of a design or graphic as a highway sign, the drives doesn't get a chance to study it because things are going by too fast so the information has to be clear and easily absorbed. It is also easier for readers and viewers to absorb information presented with shapes rather than raw numbers. For example, in a story about your city's business development crowding out residents, you could list the numbers of apartments and office building in the area. However, it would be more effective to create a pie chart showing the relationship between the two. Compare rates whenever possible, not raw numbers. It is misleading to show that one town has 10 times as many AIDS victims as another, when the first town has 10 times as many habitants. Calculate the rate of deaths per inhabitant so you can make a fair comparison. Editors who work with design or graphics need a grasp of statistics and commitment to employ them transparently and accurately to enhance understanding.
The role of newspaper or print media design to journalism as a mother of others media basically emphasised on the help it render on the reader, viewer, listener as well as the production processes. These importance can be seen in the following:
Looking at journalism as an art and science of gathering of news or information, you will see that the information is presented in a unique format. The style in which information are disseminated through newspaper and magazines are quiet different to the ways information is disseminated on books, journals, billboards e.t.c. Also the style at which information are been broadcast on radio, television and the internet is quiet different from the way it is been disseminated on movie and theatre. This is achieve through a unique graphical design and layout.
According to wikipedia the free encyclopaedia states that Newspaper design is the process of arranging material on a newspaper page, according to editorial and graphical guidelines and goals. Main editorial goals include the ordering of news stories by order of importance, while graphical considerations include readability and balanced, unobtrusive incorporation of advertising.
Samson Ademagba Sambe (2011) says, newspaper design is the general rules govern the appearance of a publication; these rules include general page format, type font and size, styles for by-lines, cutlines, photographs, graphs e.t.c.
Its can also be defined as the design of a newspaper page or the manner in which pictures, headlines and news stories are arranged on a page. The objectives of newspaper makeup areas follows: to indicate the importance of the news, to make the page easy to read and to make the page attractive.
Newspaper design communication is thus the coordinatives aspect of communication that enables fragmented elements to work in tandem and or show a dependence on each other. E.g. Photographs, cutlines, headlines, pullouts and graphics.
Newspaper design choices are made to give the publication a be-spoke identity to appeal to its target audience. There is a commercial need to ensure that design facilitates the publication having a distinct brand identity. However each edition must not look identical or the potential purchaser or reader will be deterred, thinking nothing new is being offered. A noticeable example is The Daily Mail’s hugely successful, modular structure, gothic standing head and use of front page pictures.
The era of modern newspapers begins in the mid-nineteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution, and increased capacities for printing and distribution. Over time, improvements in printing technology, graphical design, and editorial standards have led to changes and improvements in the look and readability of newspapers. Nineteenth-century newspapers were often densely packed with type, often arranged vertically, with multiple headlines for each article. A number of the same technological limitations persisted until the advent of digital typesetting and pagination in late 20th century. Process Designers typically use desktop publishing software to arrange the elements on the pages directly.
With the advent of new powerful presses that could print between 50,000 and 100,000 complete copies in one hour. They were also able to create the first “pictorial” newspapers that included illustrations created by wood cut engravings and the newly invented photograph. By the 1890's there were over 11,000 newspapers in print in USA. This popular form of journalism now included bold new modern features including banner headlines, extensive use of illustrations and the funny pages. The use of caricature became popular and was used often to present political views. If you look in newspapers today, you will still see this form of illustration is still popular.
In the past, before digital pre-press pagination, designers used precise "lay out dummies" to direct the exact layout of elements for each page. A complete layout dummy was required for designating proper column widths by which a typesetter would set type, and arrange columns of text. Layout also required the calculation of lengths of copy (text in "column inches"), for any chosen width. Much of the variance and incoherence of early newspapers was due to the fact that last minute corrections were exclusively handled by typesetters. With photographic printing process, typesetting gave way to paste-up, whereby columns of type were printed by machines (phototypesetters) on high- resolution film for paste-up on photographed final prints. These prints in turn were "shot to negative" with a large format production camera —directly to steel-emulsion photographic plates. Though paste-up put an end to cumbersome typesetting, this still required planned layouts and set column widths. Photographic plates are (still) wrapped on printing drums to directly apply ink to newsprint (paper). In the mid-1990s, the paste-up process gave way to the direct to plate process, where computer-paginated files were optically transmitted directly to the photographic plate. Replacing several in-between steps in newspaper production, direct to plate pagination allowed for much more flexibility and precision than before. Designers today still used column grid layouts only with layout software, such as Adobe InDesign or Quark.
Graphic design in newspapers are often over looked by the public and journalists who tend to be more interested in the stories, articles and other features; but how a newspaper is designed graphically can make a difference to the reader. Most editors in do not care much about the design of their papers as long as they can produce whenever they can, but graphic design is a very important aspect of newspaper production, as the presentation and layout gives more interest to the reader thereby increasing sales.
The reason why graphic design is overlooked in the country is because the readership doesn’t have much alternative or they are not fait with modern technologies so they buy any paper irrespective of its presentation. Although headlines are what get readers attention, the layout of the paper, graphics, and photographs are important to keep a readers attention. Without the use of illustrations, a paper would be a jumble of words that can create monotony and boredom for the reader. In developed countries, graphics, layout and pictures are very important as it gives the readerships more pleasure in buying and reading the paper. Most news readers in England want to read the sun because it satisfies all the components to make a good newspaper, especially their pictures.
Some papers would not have a strong lead story all the time, but they still have the highest sales because of their layout and graphics. In the early days of newspaper, across the world, the production was a mere letter, but these early papers still were able to enjoy the market as there were few papers and almost everybody wants to know what is going on around him. The industrial revolution around 1850 saw newspapers began to transform into the media that we recognise today.
Newspaper design today is so advanced that anyone can create his or her own newspaper from a computer. There are hundreds of types to work with, templates, layout designs, so what is the challenge in today’s small newspapers and what is preventing them from creating exciting new looks. This is why everybody now wants to be a publisher and everyday a newspaper is being registered.
We have to get more training in graphic design as newspaper editors are trained in journalism and not graphic design. Even though they may have been exposed to some form of this education while in school, it is not where they spent much of their time learning. So the individuals responsible for making decisions for the overall look of a paper should have the skills of graphic designing.
More emphasis is being placed on newspaper design and graphics than ever before. Most American newspapers have made changes in their appearance in hopes of attracting more readers and holding on to the ones they already have. While research on publication design has been conducted for quite some time, more research is being done as the importance of graphics to the survival of many newspapers grows. Traditionally, emphasis has been placed on reporting the major stories of the day and getting them first and right. And, traditionally, that has been enough to attract the readers that the newspaper industry needs to survive. Means to increase declining readership and circulation have included anything from increased local coverage to special promotions and discounts. Now, however, more attention is being paid to newspaper design-more specifically, making the front page look good, to increase reader satisfaction and circulation. Readers still want hard-hitting, responsible journalism, but they also want a product that is appealing to the eye.
Sambe (2011) emphasised that, newspaper design helps organise and compress information, so they are especially important for newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. His discussion was based on general graphics design. He says that every graphic elements should help your medium reach it goals. For example, design graphics makes reading more efficient for been separated and highlighted. They call on direct attention, signal the importance of an article, and break the monotony of solid text. Graphic design reinforce text by repeating or elaborating on information.
In reading newspapers, magazines or newsletters, through readers make decisions based on headlines, photographs, secondary display type and general layout. Newspaper design determines how type and other visual elements appear on page. Newspaper design include; formats, type specification and rendering of items, such as the name plate and mast head, that appears in every issues of newsletters, newspapers or the magazines.
Beach (1999:74) makes contents (be it newspaper, newsletter, or magazines) accessible. He says that, newspaper design can stimulate interest and make reading efficient, but design cannot camouflage thoughtless content or careless writing. Good newspaper design thus presuppose that elements appears organised to make reading pleasant and efficient.
Newspaper reporters sometimes resent the uses of graphic design because the take up space, forcing stories to be shorten. But good graphic design add to the visual appeal of the newspaper, attract readers' attention, and make the stories more understandable. The help reporters' stories, rather than take away from them. It must have a purpose. Filling empty space or airtime is not a sufficient reason for using a graphic or a design. A design should enhance the reader or viewer understanding of the story, which means the editor must fully understand the story before designing or choosing a graphic to go along with it. The graphic artist usually produce the visual images; the role of the editor is to conceptualise the graphic or design, find the information it should contain or illustrate and ascertain its accuracy.
Newspaper design can convey basic facts or illustration a process. Imagine you are reporting on air pollution in your country. A map could be used to show where the air is most unhealthy. An illustration could be used to show how air pollution affects the lungs. Both types of graphics work just as well for broadcast as they do for the print.
Whatever the medium, avoid design or graphics that are crammed with too much information. The reader or viewer should be able to look at the graphic and take away one basic idea. Think of a design or graphic as a highway sign, the drives doesn't get a chance to study it because things are going by too fast so the information has to be clear and easily absorbed. It is also easier for readers and viewers to absorb information presented with shapes rather than raw numbers. For example, in a story about your city's business development crowding out residents, you could list the numbers of apartments and office building in the area. However, it would be more effective to create a pie chart showing the relationship between the two. Compare rates whenever possible, not raw numbers. It is misleading to show that one town has 10 times as many AIDS victims as another, when the first town has 10 times as many habitants. Calculate the rate of deaths per inhabitant so you can make a fair comparison. Editors who work with design or graphics need a grasp of statistics and commitment to employ them transparently and accurately to enhance understanding.
The role of newspaper or print media design to journalism as a mother of others media basically emphasised on the help it render on the reader, viewer, listener as well as the production processes. These importance can be seen in the following:
1. It enhances the permanency of
the media messages i.e. It enables the readers to comprehend clearly and these
messages tends to remain with the audience as the remember what they saw.
2. Graphic or design in journalism enables
messages to be attractive. It is the attraction that makes readers buy for
instance newspapers. The attraction is enhanced by the uses of colours,
pictures, other illustrations and everyday visual elements used.
3. It encourage and remembers the
intention of messages particularly messages that accompanied by pictures and
other illustration well arranged.
4. Visual communication creates
believability. I.e. It makes the audience remember what they see and believe
because there is a visual support. For example, a story a bout disaster
or conflict may only be meaningful if it is accompanied by pictures that have
or contain the level of destruction.
5. Newspaper design provides
opportunity for people that have studied related field like fine art and
applied art.
6. It promotes commerce industry as
most of the design made sold to the individuals and organisations utilise the
expertise of professionals with graphics knowledge.
According to Steve Pasternack and Sandra Utt in their study, Front Pages of U.S. Daily Newspapers, "Newspapers have become increasingly concerned about how they look as well as what they say." (Pasternack and Utt, 1984, p.279) With this increased awareness of what good newspaper design can do for a newspaper, most American newspapers have made at least minor changes in their appearance, while many others have undergone complete redesigns- adding digests, teasers, infographics or other graphic devices. Editors are finding that graphics not only make a newspaper look better, but they also make it easier to read.
A 1984 survey of Society of Newspaper Design members, which revealed that within the preceding year 22 percent had introduced the use of informational graphics and 60 percent had increased graphics use at their newspapers, lends support to the idea of increased emphasis on design. (Smith and Hajash, 1988, p.714). Mario Garcia, author of Contemporary Newspaper Design, wrote, "To think graphically means to invite the reader into each page with attractive, provocative and orderly use of photos, typography and illustrations." (Pasternack and Utt, 1984, p.880).
As a rule, newspapers have adopted a more graphically appealing format. A study by the Newspaper Advertising Bureau found that newspapers are changing their type faces, using more photographs and redesigning their mast heads. In another study, it was found that 52 percent of the papers ran between six and 10 graphics daily, and three percent ran more than 20 graphics daily. Newspaper managers have even found that design improvements in their newspapers can have a positive effect on circulation figures, making newspaper design even more important.
The Wabash (Ind.) Plain Dealer, involved in a circulation battle, recently redesigned its front page, even placing a comic strip on page one. The Trenton (NJ) Times has redesigned its product as part of an ongoing circulation battle. Another study by Utt and Pasternack (1984) of selected newspapers from the Editor and Publisher Year book with an average circulation of 25,000 or more tried to characterise the design of the average American daily newspaper. But the most important thing they found from the study was that editors were tremendously concerned with the appearance of their newspapers, as 94.9 percent believed that a "good looking" paper could be a factor in both competitive and non-competitive situations.
REFERENCES
1. http://awoko.org/2009/04/02/media-and-the-public-15-graphic-design-in-newspapers/
2. Hartley, William A.(1990): A
literature review of articles on newspaper design and graphics appearing in
Journalism quarterly and the Newspaper research journal.
3. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_design
4. 4. Harrower, Tim: The Newspaper
Designer's Handbook
5. 5.
Htt://wiki.answers.com/Q/Newspaper_Page_Maker_up_and_its_importance&source=s&q=importace+of+Newspaper+design&ei=289aU6OGAivyATf94DoAg&ved=OCCQQFjAC
6. 6.
htt://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/special:MobileLanguages/News_design
I was surfing net and fortunately came across this site and found very interesting stuff here. Its really fun to read. I enjoyed a lot. Thanks for sharing this wonderful information. Best English Newspaper
ReplyDelete