Black & White. Unread All over?: How Design & Color Affect Reader Judgment of Newspapers

Abstract

A study of design and color effects on newspaper credibility indicates that earlier notions that readers equate modern color and layout with lack of professionalism may be faulty. The present study finds that readers judge color and design charactistics less harshly than previously thought and that characteristics other than design considerations “color” readers' views of newspaper value.

The effects of color and design on audience attitude, behavior, and perception of media

“…The findings support studies done by Smith (1989). which found that readers rated a publication more highly in the evaluative factor if it used color: by Stempel and Click (1976).…”

“…Pasternack and Utt (1986) cautioned newspapers against use of color lest they be viewed as less than trustworthy. However, the above study was replicated later by Smith (1989) with differing results. He hypothesized that students in his study would view the colorful newspapers less harshly than did students in the Pasternak-Utt study.…”

“…One objective of the study was to find whether or not color and design would have a significant effect on the way a potential reader would evaluate the brochure. Therefore, a brochureevaluation section was added to the posttest after examining studies done by Stempel and Click (1976), Siskind (1979), Pasternack and Utt (1985), , and Smith (1989). These studies used seven-point semantic differential scales with 19 or 20 word pairs.…”

“…x Attractive / unattractive aStempel and Click (1976), Siskind (1979), Pasternack and Utt (1985), , and Smith (1989).…”