Designing Disinformation: Investigating the Role of Communication Design in American Newspapers and Sensationalist News Outlets, 1890-2020
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sci
Abstract
With threats to the integrity of democracy due to online disinformation, this project investigates the role of communication design in shaping how disinformation is produced and mediated in the United States. The study will use a historical lens to chart the evolution of forms of disinformation, serving as a prism through which we can understand the design of online disinformation today. Beginning with an examination of nineteenth-century examples of sensationalist news design, the project will determine the impact and evolution of these early forms on disinformation in the digital era (1990-2020). Combining historical research and research with contemporary practitioners, I will investigate the shifting agency of editorial designers and communication design within the context of the proliferation of disinformation. The study will add a new perspective to research on disinformation by bringing a design studies approach that investigates the aesthetics of disinformation, as well as the changing role of editorial design and designers in news production over time. The project aims to establish the ethical responsibilities of editorial designers and determine where design can be incorporated into media regulations combatting disinformation to safeguard discursive democracies.
Whist studies of news design history, disinformation, ethics in design and journalism and media studies all shape my research questions, none directly address how the aesthetics of disinformation are impacted by design and the broader implications of this for democracy and media policy. These studies also do not engage with communication design practitioners to situate their studies in a real-life context. By combining writing on design ethics, journalism ethics and proposals for new media regulations, this project will determine how design can be incorporated into new regulations aiming to combat the negative impacts of disinformation on democracies and shape the ethical standards of practice for editorial designers working in an environment infiltrated by disinformation. Attaining critical distance by being undertaken from the UK, this project will be conducted within a constructivist-interpretivist framework. Informed by contemporary design historical methodologies, which combine interdisciplinary research methods to investigate artefacts, this project will use visual methods and analysis including semiotic, content and discourse analysis and digital archival research. Although overall a diachronic study, as it is concerned with news design over time, my historical research will focus on the New York World and the New York Journal, the first, infamous sensationalist newspapers in the United States, as comparative case studies to investigate the origins of sensational forms of news design synchronically. Once analysis has been conducted, I will then compare contemporary case studies (1990-2020) in digital disinformation to the historical examples, using internet-mediated research to collect parallel visual data on typography, layout, illustrations, photography and colour, which will constitute the elements of a visual lexicon of disinformation for use by designers and disinformation researchers. Building on this historical foundation, I will then employ a design studies methodology, conducting observations, semi-structured interviews, elicitation workshops and members-checking with practitioners sourced from the Society of Newspaper Design to collect data on the process of contemporary editorial design. I will then synthesize these findings with my historical research to draw connections between historical designs and news design today. In its novel application of design studies to disinformation, the outcomes of this project will be applicable to designers, media communities and political scholars concerned with the trajectory of and solutions to disinformation. It will also contribute to scholarly literature on design history and design ethics.
Whist studies of news design history, disinformation, ethics in design and journalism and media studies all shape my research questions, none directly address how the aesthetics of disinformation are impacted by design and the broader implications of this for democracy and media policy. These studies also do not engage with communication design practitioners to situate their studies in a real-life context. By combining writing on design ethics, journalism ethics and proposals for new media regulations, this project will determine how design can be incorporated into new regulations aiming to combat the negative impacts of disinformation on democracies and shape the ethical standards of practice for editorial designers working in an environment infiltrated by disinformation. Attaining critical distance by being undertaken from the UK, this project will be conducted within a constructivist-interpretivist framework. Informed by contemporary design historical methodologies, which combine interdisciplinary research methods to investigate artefacts, this project will use visual methods and analysis including semiotic, content and discourse analysis and digital archival research. Although overall a diachronic study, as it is concerned with news design over time, my historical research will focus on the New York World and the New York Journal, the first, infamous sensationalist newspapers in the United States, as comparative case studies to investigate the origins of sensational forms of news design synchronically. Once analysis has been conducted, I will then compare contemporary case studies (1990-2020) in digital disinformation to the historical examples, using internet-mediated research to collect parallel visual data on typography, layout, illustrations, photography and colour, which will constitute the elements of a visual lexicon of disinformation for use by designers and disinformation researchers. Building on this historical foundation, I will then employ a design studies methodology, conducting observations, semi-structured interviews, elicitation workshops and members-checking with practitioners sourced from the Society of Newspaper Design to collect data on the process of contemporary editorial design. I will then synthesize these findings with my historical research to draw connections between historical designs and news design today. In its novel application of design studies to disinformation, the outcomes of this project will be applicable to designers, media communities and political scholars concerned with the trajectory of and solutions to disinformation. It will also contribute to scholarly literature on design history and design ethics.
