Responses to News Pictures: A Study in Perceptual Unity

An investigation of the influence of internal org & overall shape on choices of news pictures. The indices of these mediating variables were concentric perceptual unity & basic root rectangles. Varied pictorial subjects, also varying in org & shape, were presented to 262 students in introductory sociol classes at the State U of Iowa. Thurstone's Case V method of paired-comparison scale analysis suggested that the square shape & several `strong' root rectangles, as identified by dynamic symmetry, were major influences on interests once subject matter was established. Concentric pictorial org was found to have somewhat less effect on picture choices. It was found that varying pictorial subjects which would otherwise be ordered in a unidimensional preference scale could not achieve the same unanimity of responses when forced into a standard 11 x 14-inch ratio. It was pointed out, however, that subject matter orientations were the main determinants of interest, with shape 2nd & concentricity 3rd. Results are discussed in relation to previous findings of another study (McLean, Malcolm S. Jr. & William R. Hazard, WOMEN'S INTEREST IN PICTURES: THE BADGER VILLAGE STUDY, Journ. Quart., 1953, 30, 139-162), showing that pictures chosen over other pictures represented the themes of war & war defense, spectator sports, & blood & violence. Similar action pictures, representing the same appeals or factors, were found to be dominant attributes of pictorial choices in the present study.' AA summary.