Visual Elements in Newspapers – A Study of Two Indian and Two Iranian Newspapers

Abstract

We are today living in the information age, where most of us are interested about the events taking place not only around us, but also in various parts of the world. Despite the advent of e-newspapers and the electronic media (radio and TV), print journalism continues to hold its pride of place as a reasonably reasonable source of ‘infotainment’ (information and entertainment), especially in developing countries like India. The newspaper industry may be facing a decline in the western world, but it is thriving in countries like India. This may be due to the phenomenal rise in the literacy rates and the hunger for news of the literate population. No wonder, more and more newspapers, both in English and the regional languages are appearing on the media landscape. The established newspapers are facing a stiff competition from their existing rivals, as also the new entrants. Today, no newspaper can claim to have a monopoly in the market since the readers have a wide range of choices before them. Thus, newspapers have to adopt innovative means to capture the eyeballs of the ‘undecided’ readers. One of the means is by having an attractive and innovative layout and design.

This paper will explore how two Indian (The Times of India and Eenadu) and two Iranian (Etelaat and Jamejam) newspapers have been handling their design and layout issues. Before proceeding further, it needs to be highlighted here that the means of news gathering and presentation and display of news items in online newspapers are largely based on the principles followed by the conventional newspapers. Issue like proximity, immediacy, consequence, human interest, and ‘negative news is more newsworthy than positive ones’ continue to the mantras for the newshounds. On the design side, the stiff competition on the media scene is forcing newspapers to adopt the most creative and innovative practices. The issue of design and layout is all about adapting to situational demands, while, at the same time, projecting a distinct identity of the newspaper so that the readers can locate it even from a distance [1].
The choice of the four newspapers has been a very conscious one. The Times of India is one of India’s longest surviving newspapers. Eenadu (in Telugu) is a leading regional language newspaper. The two Iranian newspapers should give an idea of how, despite the strict government control in a number of ways, these have been able to attract a large number of readers. Like in many cases, newspapers are operating in a buyers’ market and have a wealth of choices before them. In this context, one may recall the comment of Henry Ford, “My customers can purchase cars of any colour – as long as it is black!” [2]. Newspapers of today cannot afford to adopt such an arrogant stance. They, there, need to be on their toes to retain the existing readers and attract new ones. The lesson that the writer would like to project is that newspapers, including the four under study, are giving a lot of importance to the get-up and ‘marketability’ aspects [3].