Perception and the Newspaper Page: A Critical Analysis

Throughout much of the history of newspapers, design had little to do with perception and was based primarily on two factors. The first was the technical constraints imposed by the methods of printing. The second was the nature of news. The philosophy of “getting it first and getting it right” (Utt & Pasternack, 1984, p. 15) affected the look of newspaper pages because design had to accommodate tight deadlines.