The impact of child refugee images on reader engagement.
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2019-06-07
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en
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Photography enables us to better imagine happenings, to put a face on people, to take a closer look at their concerns and to be a witness of events. Different images can have a different influence on the individual. This research looked at the effect photography used in news articles has on readers in terms of reader engagement. Reader engagement incorporates four items: emotional engagement (empathy and sympathy), attentional focus, understanding and presence. The research was placed in the context of the refugee crisis between 2015 and 2016.
It compared three news article versions with one including pictures of refugee children, one of refugee adults and one without pictures in order to test whether there is a difference regarding reader engagement. Children are often used in articles as attention-grabbers because of their emotional appeal triggered by their innocence, as proved by previous research. Results showed that when participants were exposed to an article with pictures of children, their emotional engagement, attentional focus, understanding and presence increased.
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Faculteit der Letteren