Graphics: Papers’ next big step

illiteracy levels to comprehend the printed media contents.
Today, given that almost the entire population can read and write, the role of visuals in newspapers has changed significantly.
Photographs are used to give a graphic illustration of actual events and in the process authenticate information provided by the newspapers. Illustrations are more frequently as editorial and strip cartoons that act as forms of social commentary.
However, the mass creation and recurrent upgrading of various design programmes, both vector-based and bitmap-oriented, such as Photoshop, CorelDraw, Illustrator, Indesign and Freehand, has given media companies an opportunity to vary the manner in which they present information to the public.
Information graphics are developed through the use of design programmes to blend text and visuals so that information is custom-made to provide an alterative to the older forms of news presentations.
The composition presented by information graphics may not necessarily exist in real life, but the ideas they present mirror the opinions or views of the paper that carries them. Their advantage over the traditional news presentations is that since they can fuse visuals and text, they can be manipulated enough to present information with the ability to capture the imagination of the reader.
For example, a graphic reconstruction of an accident showing how a vehicle veered off the road and crashed has a lot more emotional value than the textual version describing the same incident. Whereas the text may explain how a pothole at the so-and-so kilometre peg along the so-and-so road was responsible for an accident, an illustrated graphic of the same information may be more vivid in the mind as it shows a pictorial representation of the scene, coupled with text labelling key components about the accident.
Sports information graphics are just as important.
Presentation of substantial statistics in “article” form may confuse the reader that has to link information from, say, the third and the seventh paragraph. Yet a graphic statistical presentation is less tedious as all information is made available within the same platform.
In-text graphics, those that support or extend the opinions in an article, are important in so many ways.
For instance, they save time for the reader. Graphics are simple and direct, and a reader may not need to read an entire story to get meaning. Therefore, information graphics either give the reader reason to read the rest of the information related to them or lets the consumer skip to the next set of news if such information does not interest him/her.
Additionally, they provide an alternative form of information that may give the news a better chance of being understood. Last year The Herald published a set of information graphics about the Premier Soccer League title race. The main feature in them was a graph showing how Dynamos had clawed their way back into contention to be champions and how the two teams above it, Motor Action and FC Platinum, had lost points.
For any other reader, the information may be just a factual presentation of the PSL race. But to a sports fan, it may mean a lot more than that, such as the influence of the new coach, the effect of injuries to star players or the discovery of form for a previously under-rated player. What makes information graphics believable is the smooth fusing of a combination of visuals and text so that they appear to be originally part of the same composition.
The unrealistic information graphics include those that have visuals that appear not to blend, those whose “cut-off” line is clearly visible. For others it may be a case of bad choices of images, both quality and context.
But the quality graphics have the ability to contexulise in information, provide useful background to a running story or crystallise a vital or interesting part of a story such that readers get a greater understanding of the news the paper may want to pass.
And there are several types of visuals a newspaper may choose from, ranging from illustrations, cartoons and statistical presentations to actual photographs whose characteristics extend the overall sense of the printed words.
Information graphics are certainly not meant to replace the traditional forms of news presentation. The role of photography in newspapers can never be diminished. Graphics may be seen as an alternative form of news presentation that could be used sparingly but effectively to get newspaper consumers closer to the truth.
Recent graphics in world newspapers  about how a Norwegian psychopath Andres Breivic gunned down dozens of youngsters in an apparent cleansing act based on eyewitness accounts and the killer’s own admission showed aerial photographs of the geographical area where the hideous acts where performed with textual references to his movements and actions.
While all that may have been included in several news articles elsewhere in the newspapers, the visual could recreate the incident and provide a clearer understanding of the killer’s motives, strategy and ruthlessness.
Information graphics may be few or even several images fused, and consequently the collective visual may not be a true reflection of an event of characters, but what these do very well is to add value to information presented in newspapers and, by extension, provide a clearer communication model between the media product and its readers.
An added advantage for the newspapers is that information graphics add colour to pages and make information accessible for readers who want to do more in their lives than spend so much time perusing the printed pages.