Leiden University Student Repository

Boelens, Charlotte Louisa Tanne (2018)

Grabbing and Guiding Your Attention: Art Theories on Composition Applied to the Newspaper Front Page

Master thesis | Media Studies (MA)

During the late nineteenth and twentieth century newspaper front pages have evolved quite homogeneously across Western society. At the same time, the general public became much more familiar with images and imagery thanks to the rise of photography and the growing popularity and accessibility of art. In this thesis, it is researched how newspaper front pages function as free-standing images themselves. First, the technological, societal, and cultural history of newspapers is discussed. Next, several art historical theories on composition are discussed. These two elements are put together in the third chapter for a case study of 100 years of front pages of Nieuwsblad van het Noorden. The compositions of the front pages of this Dutch regional newspaper aren't very pleasing from an art historical perspective, but do tend to some form of balance. The recognisability of newspaper front pages is confirmed with this research.

newspaper

front page

pictorial art

image

modernity

Author

Boelens, Charlotte Louisa Tanne

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Book and Digital Media Studies

Supervisors

Weel, A.H. van der

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en