Infographic Visualization Of Modern Journalistic Text

Abstract

The article is devoted to the complex and controversial process of the mass media visualization. It is proved that information design only fulfills its tasks ( which are: to contribute to the most complete identification of the content of printed materials; to facilitate the perception of the publications; to manage the reader's attention, assisting the issue content quick understanding as well as finding the most important and relevant piece of information for a reader, who is a member of the society), when it implements its main principle which is subordination of the form to the content. The visualization of journalistic texts is illustrated by examples from weekly high-quality periodicals: the federal newspapers Kultura and Sobesednik . The longreads such as portrait interviews under the heading "From the first person" in Kultura , published in 2018–2019, as well as longreads under the heading "Person" in Sobesednik are the subject under analyses. Media designers in their own way contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of publications, “packing” the sense of the texts: 1) accompanying them with the heading, main title, subtitle, lead, typed in bold in a broadsheet, with the initials, carried out in the text; 2) increasing the area of the header complex due to the author's signature, cut by , cut by rulers and brought up, to the main heading - if necessary, it is also illustrated with photographs, additional information, etc.

Keywords: Designvisualizationjournalistic textillustrationorientation toolscorporate design

Introduction

Content analysis of the information field formed by the modern press, online media, as well as the Internet (Tulupov, Shchekina, & Braslavets, 2018) performs the percentage increase of newspaper, magazine, Internet space or television time occupied by visual elements in modern media, as well as publications are increasingly acquiring a visual-verbal character. Visualization as a global trend is explained by both external and internal factors (Tulupov, 2018a, pp. 178-179).

Problem Statement

All-round visualization can adversely affect the information effectiveness and efficiency. A design that begins to play the key role in the media ceases to be such, since its main principle is ignored, and the principle is the subordination to content. Functionality is also violated: after all, a form with relative independence is, by definition, secondary. The show-window, aggressive, dominant form eases down the communication, while a plain form, on the contrary, increases the communicative effectiveness. Only conscious submission to the senses makes the designer's work professional.

Research Questions

The study of the visualization of modern Russian periodicals process provides answers to a number of questions: Is the visualization of media texts an objective necessity? What is the place of visualization in the process of "packaging" media messages and texts? What are the forms of visualization in the media? How do modern visualization techniques relate to the technological factor in making up a periodical? Does the efficiency of perception of journalistic texts subjected to visualization increase?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose and objectives of this article is to reveal the possibilities of media design, to identify the advantages and disadvantages of visualization, its low professional implementation threats, as well as the potential of this advanced method of “packaging” information in modern media.

Research Methods

To present the process of visualization of journalistic texts as a modern media tendency, both theoretical (analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, specification, etc.) and empirical research methods (methods-operations - observation, measurement and methods-actions - examination, monitoring, study and synthesis of experience) are undertaken. The traditional chain “analysis (swot-analysis) - abstraction - synthesis” made it possible to determine the common, particular and individual that characterizes modern information media design. A comparative method is also applied: a comparison of the one-and-a-half-year visualization practice in two federal paper media. At the same time, the systems approach was carried out: visualization of media texts is considered in the article from the point of view of external, internal and subjective factors of the periodicals formation (Tulupov, 2018b, pp. 11-13), taking into consideration all the media functions and tasks, as well as the principles of press design (Tulupov, 2018b, pp. 24-32).

Findings

Analysis of the specific media texts design led to the following conclusions.

1) The possibilities of using images to attract and hold readers’ attention, as well as transferring information into a compact and at the same time figurative form have increased thanks to computerization. One can argue with all certainty that a universal graphic language is being developed and improved, used when presenting global content: for example, newspaper-magazine and Internet navigation, where universal symbols, screensavers and signs are implemented, and are understandable to the most (Tsvetkova, 2015, 2016). So in Kultura the heading complex is placed on a photo, while its elements and signatures are given by an inversion directly on the illustrations/ In the Sobesednik , photo clipping and text wrap, colored basis are actively applied when filing a footer or providing the headers and key words, carrying out pieces of the text and presenting a central figure.

2) A modern text transmitted through the media acquires a fractional structure based on the current system of orientation tools: super-heading, heading, super-title, main title, sub-title, author's signature, location, lead, internal headings of individual parts of the text, carried out pieces of the text, afterword, signatures and comments to the illustrations (Vasiliev, 2016, pp. 5-11). Kultura and Sobesednik orientation tools occupy from 13% to 17% of the publication space. Since the illustration accounts for an average of 20%, then about 65% remains to the text. So designers take into account the reading style shift from consistent, unhurried, in-depth, reusable - to "operational", sometimes disposable. And this is entity. Psychologists state:

Children who grew up in the era of high technologies look at the world differently. Their perception is neither consistent nor textual. They see the picture as a whole and perceive the information on the principle of a clip. For today's youth, clip thinking is peculiar. (Khruleva, 2015, para. 4)

And further the specialists warn: this is rather not a thoughtful reading, but a browsing, more often it is fleeting, superficial. Reading ceases to be labor, and is perceived by many as entertainment, distraction. Hence, the transformation of the task of designers who are forced by any means to catch and hold the reader’s eye, to convey to the deader a limited set of ideas in a simplified, but preferably bright, form. Fast response, though not accurate enough, is more important now in most cases. Everything is accelerated (Khruleva, 2015).

3) Documentary photography, in all its specificity, is less accurate than even a low-grade verbal publication (text). It carries the illusion of accuracy, although, in fact, its associative series is much wider. The picture offers more alternatives to psychological patterning. And this is by no means a disadvantage, but the dignity of illustration as a special form of the information fixing and presenting (Tulupov, 2019). The designers of Kultura and Sobesednik respond to the information personalization process, which began more than a quarter of a century ago and continues to increase, having resorted to the active implementation of photographs of publications authors and central figures, which occupies from 17% to 21% of the space given for portrait interviews in two federal periodicals.

4) Under market conditions, the role of corporate design is logically enhanced (Felici, 2014; Harrower, 1999; Hodge, 2015), in which such constants as a logo, slogan, font, color, perform a dual task: to identify and advertise a particular media. Modern computer and digital technologies, radically changing the prepress and printing processes, are able to solve almost any design problem. For example, the achieved image clarity when printing allows to place any size photos with all its nuances. The programs applied make it possible to apply illustrations of the most varied forms, any layout, any combination (halftone and hatched images, with and without a background, with a text wrap, text overlay, etc.) (Switich, 2018). The possibilities of accurate color separation, adequate color rendition have brought to practice a load of multicolored periodicals, among which there are also Kultura and Sobesednik .

5) One should be wary of the reader’s orientation only on visual communication, since this gradually alienates one from verbal communication that contributes to the purposeful and speedy formation of a common informational, aesthetic - cultural code (which, by the way, facilitates decoding the visual code as a special case). Information graphics (Laykova, 2015, 2016) as a special form of presenting a certain socio-political topic (problem) implementing maps, tables, diagrams, etc., as well as photographic and drawing illustrations, collages, photomontages should be welcomed and develop, but not to the detriment of traditional verbal journalistic forms. In addition, the preparation of a detailed infographics requires a lot of time and employees special qualifications. The editorial staff should include this form in the compositional-graphic model of the media, if the department of illustration is staffed by a journalist-creator, photo editor, photographer, artist or a designer and a layout designer, so that the visual and witty informational-graphic compositions would set a problem in a special way, from the side which could not be reached by the writing journalists. It is this infographics that can become a publication, and its constant presence in the issue can be a kind of a house style of a publication.

Conclusion

In the 1990s. Komsomolskaya Pravda published the material on a whole page about the emergency landing of a passenger airliner owned by a provincial private company. The message consisted of correspondence in the volume of one hundred and fifty petit lines, brief comments of officials, notes on similar cases abroad, blitz-interviews with photo portraits of pilots and passengers, information graphics. The orientation tools of the reader included, in addition to pictures and the scheme of the accident, the carryings out pieces of the text and the developed heading complex (the “head”, subtitle, lead, typed in the title font). In fact, the actual text took less than 50% of the page. At the same time, the author of this article remembers the main thing:

- There are quite a few private airlines in Russia that organize flights on foreign aircraft, which have often exceeded its safe usage date;

- there is no developed infrastructure in the country that ensures timely and high-quality repairs of such aircraft;

- The system of professional development and retraining of pilots to obtain admission to the flights of aircraft, that have another modification (with the issuance of diplomas or certificates of state standard) is ruined.

It seems that such a presentation of the material, aimed at the effectiveness and efficiency of journalistic texts, is organic and relevant for the quality social and political press. And today, almost every publication of quality media is “packaged” in a special way: it is accompanied by a heading, main title, subtitle, lead, typed in bold on a wide format. At the same time, the space of the headline complex increases due to the author's signature, cut by rulers and brought up, to the main heading - if necessary, it is also illustrated with photographs, additional information, etc. “The powerful invasion of new information technologies has enriched the graphic and expressive means and possibilities of journalism, mass and interpersonal communication. Hypertext revolutionized the structure of printed texts, and infographics and color revived and expanded the graphic component of the text. The coexistence of several parallel frames on a television screen gives an unusual dynamism and versatility to the view on today's world, making it not only stereoscopic, but also overcoming time and space. The combination of stereophony and musical context in the form of both separate phrases and whole passages opens up new possibilities in broadcasting” (Zassursky, 2004, p. 3). Thus, media design is becoming more functional and versatile, which is convergent.

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