Michaela Hahn
Images are a universal medium of communication. Joshua Brewer, a former principal designer at Twitter and co-creator of 52 Weeks of UX, states that human beings are highly visual creatures that are able to make connections and process visual information almost instantaneously. (Brewer, 2010) However, a single image may be used by scores of different storytellers in a transmediated world where stories are told everywhere. This results in images suffering a contextual change throughout the cross platform experience.
Like designers, photojournalists are held to high ethical standards when it comes to work being produced. There exists a set of underlying rules that help protect and translate a faithful representation of news and information in visual form.
This project looks at how images in a transmedia space are used well, arguably used poorly and the effects of how the public consumes this information.
"By analyzing data collected from the International Committee of the Red Cross’ three prominent social media platforms, this research will help achieve a better understanding of how users prefer to consume visual and textual information on different media platforms, ignite a better understanding of how media and content are being selected, and examine instances in transmedia journalism that link towards the problem space."
Accuracy of participant interpretation of image by platform.
For example, three renditions of the same image were discovered on the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) Twitter account. Each image was equipped with a different caption linking back to the hashtag #Yemen. Porter states that “One of the most dangerous elements in any design is imagery that conveys the wrong message, causes confusion or leaves the user with a sense of shallow fakery.” (Porter, 2010) By using the same image, are places like the ICRC able to get their information across? Or is the information leading to confusion? In the photojournalism profession it is taught that captions and cutlines that accompany a photograph must establish the who, what, when, where, why, and how of a situation with clarity and accuracy. Is an image likely captured for journalistic purposes and used by an organization that depends on factual representation of a crisis still beholden to the ethics of journalism and factual reporting even when used for public relations?
Belle Beth Cooper (2013), writes, “Tweets with images earned up to 18 percent more clicks, 89 percent more favorites, and 150 percent more retweets.” Cooper argues about how adding imagery to tweets leads to more engagement with the content. Adding just any image isn’t enough, however. According to Leslie Mullen (1998) “a news photograph is often not just an interesting picture used to highlight a story, sometimes it is a mode of storytelling that incorporates ideas of truth, reality, cultural value systems, and perception.” In her research, Mullen bases her argument on the truth in photography in a post-modernized world.
This thesis project will undertake a comparative study of how multimedia platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram use imagery and text, and to further understand how users consume and interpret the way they receive this information. By analyzing data collected from the International Committee of the Red Cross’ three prominent social media platforms, this research will help achieve a better understanding of how users prefer to consume visual and textual information on different media platforms, ignite a better understanding of how media and content are being selected, and examine instances in transmedia journalism that link towards the problem space.
The goal of this research is to establish an understanding of how information is processed and interpreted on multimedia platforms.
Once this study is complete, future researchers can use this content to further understand how information is consumed in a transmediated environment, reduce audience confusion or fatigue, and examine the ethical impact of image use and reuse in a multiplatform mediascape.
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