Effects of Novelty in News Photographs on Attention and Memory
Critics of news photography have argued that most news photographs are highly conventional. Two experiments were conducted to examine how people respond to photographs that break with conventionality. Specifically, these studies tested the effects of photographic novelty in terms of preferences for viewing, viewing time, recall memory, and interest ratings for the photographs when seen alone and when seen in a newspaper. The experiments show that readers respond better to photographs that are novel, but only when the images are viewed on their own. These effects dissappear when photos are seen as part of newspaper pages. In this context, the only driving sources of interest seem to be the story topic.