Graphics. [2,499 text words]

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1 Graphics [2,499 text words] Graphics, also referred to as infographics, are visual elements used to explain information in a story in a way that text, photos or video alone would not be able to do. Graphics present information in a more concise, succinct way. In 2001, Edward Tufte, a professor at Yale University, estimated that anywhere from 900 billion to 2 trillion graphics were printed worldwide annually. With the launch of the USA Today in the 1980s and the development of the Internet in the 1990s, graphics have become a vital part of news. Good graphics do not call attention to themselves, but become an integral part of a story. Those looking at a graphic should not have to think about how it was put together, but focus on the information it sends. Graphics should not be complicated to read; on the contrary, they should be easy to follow and understand. While some interpret graphics in the media to include photographs, most media organizations make a clear distinction between the two, often having a photography department separate from the graphics department. Collaboration between the two, nonetheless, is common. Print stories often contain both graphics and photos. Most media companies hire specialists whose only job is to create elaborate graphics. These specialists are usually not involved in the layout or editing of a story. Since graphics are supposed to replace text, most present information in a more visually creative way, and are not text heavy. Graphics may accompany a story, or be completely separate in which case, they are called standalone graphics. Reporters and/or editors have a key role in the development of graphics, since they provide the information for the graphic. They are also the ones that often decide when a story should have a graphic with it or not. When a graphic accompanies a story, reporters and editors also decide what part of the story will be transformed in a graphic. In this case, the information for the graphic is removed from the story, to avoid becoming repetitive. For graphics, the most important thing is the data in which the graphic is based, and the goal of the graphic. While illustrations, for example, can be more humorous sometimes, they still need to have a specific goal (such as balancing or adding to the story itself). And without good, well researched data, graphics do not work. Although a majority of graphics is created in house, wire services such as the Associated Press also provide ready made graphics to accompany stories.

2 Computers have also helped spread the use of graphics in journalism, by making their creation easier and more accessible. Adobe has been on the front run since the late 1980s, with its Illustrator and Photoshop programs. Common elements in graphics No matter they format, most graphics have the same five basic elements: Headline, or title, is a short, clear introduction to the graphic, used to call attention and invite people to read it. Because of that, headlines in graphics can sometimes be confusing, or puzzling, requiring further explanation later in the graphic. Chatter, or Briefer is a piece of additional information explaining the graphic or its reason to be. It may serve as a complement to the short and concise headline. Art is the visual element in the graphic. It may be composed of something as simple as a few bars, a pie chart, or a map, or elaborate, or more complex, such as one photo, a collage of photos, or a mix of photos and map, for example. Source line explains where the information in the graphic was originally acquired. It usually includes the name of an organization, a book, or other reliable source or sources from where the data used in the graphic came. Credit line lists the artist and/or publication that created the graphic, or if it originated from a wire service, such as the Associated Press. These wire graphics are usually provided to the newspaper for a nominal fee. Illustrations are the only type of graphic that do contain these basic elements, since illustrations while still conveying information in a way that text could not do not use data the same way other graphics do. Illustrations usually do contain art and a credit line. Types of graphics There are many types of graphics most commonly used in the media. Which type of graphic to use depends on the type of information being displayed, and the objective of the graphic. While a map better explains the location of certain places, trends in the stock market may be better explained with a fever chart. Graphics can be divided into six main types: maps, tables, charts, timelines, illustrations and breakout boxes. Maps are the most used type of graphic in the media. Maps help answer questions about the location of certain places; the distance between places; or the geography, typography or other peculiarities places. Maps can also include weather information, population figures, and else.

3 Tables are also a widely known and used type of graphics. Information is divided between columns and rows, with headings usually running horizontally across the top of the table, and the categories listed vertically on the side. Tables allow readers to compare two or more subjects, and can sometimes include much text. Tables may also include photos or drawings, to help illustrate the different categories or subjects. A table can compare, for example, the division of both women and men within age groups in a population. Charts, in the other hand, consist of a series of information measured with a horizontal and/or vertical scale attached. The scale helps identify the actual quantities being expressed by the elements in the chart. There are three common types of charts: fever or line charts, bar charts and pie charts. A fever or line chart shows one or more continuous lines connecting several points on a grid. This helps illustrate change in quantities over time. As in most charts, it is important to have a clear starting and ending point. A fever chart can contain more than one line at a time, allowing a comparison of two or more elements over the same period of time. The stock market is usually presented in the media using a fever chart. Bar charts, as the name suggests, present information by using bars to compare two or more items. All bars in the same graphic extend in the same direction and follow the same scaling, allowing a person to easily compare the items just by looking at where the bars end. A newspaper can use a bar chart to quickly show the difference in sales revenue between many stores, for example. Pie charts are used to represent 100% of something, and how that is divided among different categories that make up the total. Each category is represented by a slice of the pie, with each slice usually separated from the other by a line. Pie charts are commonly represented using a perfect circle, which is then divided into the many categories. Voting results, for example, can be quickly shown in a pie charts, divided into Democrats, Republicans, Independents and so on, which make up the full, 100% of the voting population. Timelines explain how an event or person developed over a period of time. For that reason, most timelines include some form of measurement of time: seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. Each specific point in time in a timeline is then explained in details. The media has often summarized the events during the first Gulf War, in 1990/91, using timelines. Illustrations are also considered graphics in the media. Illustrations help add information to a story many times in a more impacting manner than text or even photographs would, since illustrations do not necessarily need to represent reality, or follow proper sizes. Cartoonists are famous for enhancing a person s feature to call attention or provoke thought. During the 2008 presidential elections, for example, illustrations often showed Barack Obama s ears much bigger than they

4 really were. Illustrations are usually done after much discussion between the graphic artist, the reporter and the editor more than any other type of graphic. Some media companies hire professional whose only job is to produce illustrations, and will also hire outside professionals to draw them on a job by job basis. Breakout boxes are unique to print publications, and are used to present information in a more creative way. Rather than replace the text, breakout boxes highlight parts of the text in a more interesting, attention grabbing way. These may include, for example, a list of questions and answers; a fact box, listing an event s location, time, price, direction, and other basic information; a bio box for a person, with their age and other details; lists or checklists. Page designers themselves usually create breakout boxes as they are laying out a publication, with the input of editors and reporters. History Humans already used graphics to present information 30,000 years ago. Archeologists have interpreted chips in cave paintings of animals as possible diagrams to practice the aim of weapons during hunts. Sumerians who lived in the area that now is Iraq developed a writing style by 3,500 BC. Their writing became more symbolic over the centuries, in an attempt to pass information in a more concise way much like graphics do. In contemporary History, and more closely related to what we understand as media graphics nowadays, many consider Williams Playfair ( ) the father of graphics. A Scottish engineer and political economist who lived most of his life in London, Playfair created three of the most common graphics still used to this day: the line graph, the bar chart and the pie chart. Another pioneer of graphics to inspire Playfair s work was Joseph Priestley ( ), who, aside from being credit with co discovering oxygen, also created the first timeline. When it comes to the media, the first graphics appeared in the early 1800s. The Times of London used maps to explain how a murder took place in a victim s mansion in 1806, marking the beginning of the use of graphics in the media. The U.S. was not far behind, with the first maps appearing in the media in the 1850s, to tell the location of important battles during the Civil War. During both the First and Second World Wars, maps became extremely helpful for newspapers to clearly show where key battles took place in a distant Europe. By then, graphics were also used in American magazines. The Chicago Tribune became the first newspaper to create a graphics department, in With the new department, it also created the position of graphics editor, assigning a person to be in charge of graphics produced for the entire newspaper and solidifying the importance of graphics in the American media.

5 USA Today Currently the best selling newspaper in the U.S., the USA Today brought a revolution in the use of graphics in the media. The publication was founded by Al Neuharth, Chief Executive Officer of Gannett at the time, with the goal of creating a newspaper with a truly national perspective, something the U.S. did not have until then. With it, came a unique take on the use of graphics. Neuharth himself had a clear concept in his mind: do to what television already did so well and do it better. It was a huge contrast from best selling newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, which rarely used graphics at the time. A committee was assembled in 1980 to design prototypes for the newspaper then code named NN, for Nation s Newspaper. The committee included Neuharth; Ron Martin, then editor of the News American; future deputy managing editor of design J. Ford Huffman; and designer George Rorick, among many others. Around 30 people worked overall in assembling prototypes for what would become the USA Today. Four main prototypes were presented between 1981 and When the USA Today was launched on September 15, 1982, it introduced several new graphic elements that American newspapers had not seen previously. One of the most famous was the weather map. The idea was simple: run a wide map across the page and put weather patterns in it. Artist Ray Stanczak, editor John Bodette and J. Ford Huffman did the first USA Today map in Rochester, N.Y. in It was presented to the other members of the initial newsroom, when artist George Rorick volunteered to be in charge of the weather map. Rorick tried several version of the map from different perspectives before deciding on the definitive one. Originally, the map was presented on an inside page, in black and white. Ultimately, it was displayed in color, on the back of the first section, where it still is. Aside from the color coded section labels, another element made famous by the USA Today is the snapshot a small, easy to read graphic showing a current trend. They are fun, quick read graphics. Ron Martin is usually credited with creating the snapshots. George Edmonson was one of the first Snapshot editors, and directed a team of researchers to produce them. Originally, the paper was to have just one snapshot. At the last minute, Neuharth decided to have snapshots in each of the front pages. When the USA Today was launched, it would take four hours to produce a single snapshot, not counting the research involved. By late 2008, the newspaper had produced an estimated 28,000 snapshots, and to this day remain one of the most valued bits of information for readers in the USA Today.

6 The influence of the Internet in graphics Since it first appeared in the 1990s, the Internet has changed the way the media work. It has done the same with graphics in the media. From static images and numbers, graphics have become animated, taking advantage of internet only tools. Along with movement, online graphics can include sound, video and also be interactive. The latest technology allows graphic artists to easily transform a graphic done for print into an online graphic. The South Florida Sun Sentinel was one of the first newspapers to present graphics online. Leavett Biles, graphics director at the paper at the time, created the first multimedia graphics department, bringing artists such as R. Scott Horner and Don Wittekind to work for it. The newspaper s approach at the time was Nobody does. We're going to invent it. The department launched the first animated graphic online in late It was a Christmas project for the Science page of the online edition of the newspaper, created using Macromedia Director and Shockwave. The animation is still available online for viewing. The number of visitors to the animations grew fast, despite the time it would take to download the necessary software to see them: up to 30 minutes. Soon after, Macromedia released Flash, and many other media organizations started adding animated and/or interactive graphics to their sites. Adobe acquired Macromedia in December of With the advances of the Internet, faster connections and cheaper computers and connection costs, online graphics have rapidly become an important tool for the media. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING Harris, Christopher R., and Paul M. Lester. Visual Journalism: A Guide for New Media Professionals. Boston, MA: Allyn & Beacon, Lester, Paul M. Visual Communication: Images With Messages. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, Quinn, Sarah D. The Vision of George Rorick. PoynterOnline. < (accessed January 2009) Ryan, William E., and Theodore E. Connover. Graphics Communication Today. 4th ed. New York, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning, Rorick, George. Hey, George, How's the Weather?. PoynterOnline. < (accessed January 2009)

7 SEE ALSO Associated Press; Editor; Gannett; Internet Impact on Media; Layout; Maps; Newspaper Design; Photography; USA Today; Wall Street Journal; Weather Journalism Danny Paskin