Seeing the newspaper

About this book

In these days of tabloid television and slick magazines, the daily newspaper may seem old-fashioned and predictable. Here Kevin G. Barnhurst takes a second glance at the "look" of the newspaper: the architecture of the page. Seeing the Newspaper explores the history and meaning of the visual and graphic elements of the page, including the use of charts, type, and white space. The book points out that layout and design may appear secondary in importance to content, but can actually shape our impressions of the news as much as the words we read. The organization of the front page, for example, influences the order in which we read stories and how we rank news events and issues. Barnhurst, a former graphic designer, writes in an anecdotal style that will appeal not only to graphic arts enthusiasts but to everyone who finds joy in the early-morning ritual of reading the paper