Visual Arrangement

Contents

• Strategic Dimensions of Visual Arrangement
• Framing versus Information
• Formats and Visual Arrangement
  • Newspapers
  • Magazines
  • Television Advertising
  • Television News
  • Internet Web Pages
• Working through a message

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Strategic Dimensions of Visual Arrangement

• Selection. What will you present visually? What photographs will you choose to include? what pictographs? what words in headlines?
• Spatial Placement. We know that some placements are more important than others.
  • Items more centrally located draw the eye first.
  • Items located higher in the visual draw attention before those located lower in the visual.
  • A centrally located image will draw the eye from the edges of a visual into the center.
• Temporal Placement. If there is a time dimension in the message, beginnings and endings are particularly powerful in gaining attention. The principle here is the same as in speeches.
• Size. Larger items receive more visual attention than smaller items. This is the principle for headlining. The principle carries over into the size of photographs and pictographs, and the number of columns across a newspaper page that a story receives.
• Motion. Motion draws the eye. The motion may be actual or a still photograph that depicts action.
• Interaction. These dimensions can work to reinforce each other, or in resistance to each other. That is, large centrally located motion, is particularly strong in drawing the eye. Or, a large photograph placed in the lower right hand corner of a newspaper page will compete for attention with a large headline higher in the page.

These are the dimensions to study.

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Framing versus Information

1. What information is presented? This question gets you to the heart of selection for inclusion in the visual. The dimensions of arrangements emphasize the different attention given to various bits of information. A photograph, for example, presents particular information.
2. What information is not presented? Because of the power of the visual, what information to not include is equally strategic. And similarly, placement deemphasizes certain information. For example, just as photographs present information they deemphasize other information they do not present.
3. How are the dimensions of the visual tied to the strategic frame? Because the dimensions of the visual manage attention and emphasis they work in the service of the frame. A photograph, for example, serves to frame information into a particular story the photograph tells.

Formats and Visual Arrangement

There are variations in the strategic dimensions of visual arrangement in different communication formats.

Newspapers

Everyday the editorial staff of a newspaper makes decisions about which stories are most important. The newspaper is designed to relay this judgement. Newspaper advertising, while generally beyond editorial control, employs the same principles as news judgement.

• Sections and pages. Obviously front section priority (material in the front section is more important than inside sections) and front page priority (material on front page of sections is more important than material on subsequent pages) is a principle of newspaper design.
• Above the fold. The basic principle of page design is the "above the fold" principle: more important placement is in the upper portion of the unfolded newspaper. The other dimensions including size and placement principles apply as well.
• Color is another important dimension of newspaper design. Color pictures or typeface receive more visual attention.
• Photographs have particular emphasis in newspapers because of the dominance of typeface in the newspaper.

Magazines

Some magazines work in ways similar to newspapers. Others, however, reverse the typeface/photo ratio and adopt a format called "photo-journalism." Advertising in magazines exploits the same visual arrangement dimensions as editorial decisions.

• In photo-journalism the typeface (captions or stories) serves to modify (reinforce or offset) the emphasis dimensions of visual arrangement.
• Other strategic dimensions of visual arrangement apply to photo-journalism.

Television Advertising

Of course, all the dimensions of strategic choice that we have highlighted govern the power of television advertising. The dimensions of visual arrangement provide a framework for understanding the visual dimensions that separate the power of television from oral speaking situations.

Television News

Television news combines the strategic choices of any speaker with the strategic choices of newspapers. In doing so there are important dimensions for attention.

• Modern news channels carry several types of video

• An overall newscast is arranged according to principles of selection, principles of size, and principles of temporal priority.
• Individual stories are assembled from the following elements:
  • Images captured by camera, including the speeches of principals, are presented as supporting material for a story thesis. These images constitute the primary information of a story and are influenced by the dimensions of visual arrangement. Remember that images are selected so that even though you may see a speaker, the real rhetor in the story is editorial.
  • The reporter in the story adds additional information, but primarily frames the story. This is a second level of story and the most dominant level in establishing the frame.
  • Typically, an anchor introduces the story with a headline that helps set up the frame for the story. This is a third level of strategic control.
  • Modern screen presentation often includes headlines over the shoulder or at bottom of screen that also frames the story by reducing it to an essential element as primary.
• As you analyze the strategic dimension of television news, layer your analysis:
  • Determine type of video and who exercises strategic control
  • Analyze the strategic dimensions of the newscast
  • Analyze the strategic dimensions of the introduction of the story
  • Analyze the strategic dimensions of the reporter presenting the story
  • Analyze the strategic dimensions of the visual supporting material within the story.

Although television news often presents their purpose as "to inform" be sure you carefully analyze purpose beyond just informing. Is the story there to promote commercial interests of the station? Does the story promote a particular strategic position on an issue? This does not mean that stories are not there "to inform," but they may be there for other purposes as well.

Internet Web Pages

Web pages have an inherently visual dimension.

• To the principles of any visual arrangement add the consideration of the initial screen appearance. What loads on the screen first? What is below or offscreen initially? What use is made of headlines?
• A second unique characteristic of web pages is that they are what we call pull-technology rather than push-technology. That is, unlike the mass media, the audience member is not "passive" but must take action to seek information beyond the initial page. Thus, internet links are particularly important in strategically expanding the audience's search for additional pages.
• Finally, differentiate between web pages that merely deliver a different medium through the web (such as this one) and those which are specifically designed with the unique powers of the web included.

Working through a message

• Remember that, first and foremost, strategic messages that emphasize the visual are still strategic messages. Analyze them using all the things you have learned are appropriate starting with analyses of audience, purpose, and rhetorical situation.
• Remember that visuals are a form of supporting material. As such they make an argument. Pay particular attention to the proposition supported with visuals.
• Then work to understand how the dimensions of visual arrangement fit into the overall strategic choices of the messages.