Title

Influence Of Appearance On Readers’ Impressions Of Newspapers

Abstract

There is a suspicion among some newspaper editors and designers that newspapers that use large amounts of color and contemporary designs may be taken seriously by their readers. This idea was given some support by an earlier study that found readers considered traditionally designed newspapers more valuable and accurate than modem or modular papers. The study suggested that readers may perceive papers that use color as less accurate. The current study is a modified replication of that study. The concerns raised in the prior research were not born out by this study. Its findings suggests that found that respondents who regularly read newspapers that are leaders in color and contemporary design did not perceive there to be significant differences in journalistic value or accuracy related to the design formats of newspapers. Instead, readers in the present study liked color. They rated papers that used spot color higher in many categories like interest, freshness and excitement. Nor were they bothered about the journalistic quality of newspapers that used color. They did not rate the papers that used color lower in categories like accuracy, professionalism or value. The study also found that there were no significant differences in their ratings of the papers with soft-news pictures and ones with hard-news pictures in terms of professionalism, accuracy, passivity, informativeness, importance or value. Papers with soft-news pictures were rated as more pleasant, more responsible, more readable, better organized, more modem, more colorful, less stale and more exciting. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

1-1-1991

Publication Title

Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies

Volume

12

Issue

2

Number of Pages

152-163

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/02560054.1991.9653058

Socpus ID

84972967669 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84972967669

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