Configuration and contextualization of the photo galleries in on-line newspapers. Applied analytical proposal

Abstract

The photo galleries in four Spanish digital journals --El mundo, La vanguardia, Sur and La voz de Galiciawere analysed in January 2010. A model was designed with indicators to examine the topics, configuration and informative value of the galleries. The study included the quantitative importance of the galleries, their increasing specialization and heterogeneous design, access and functionality. The conclusions are: the galleries are abundant, have good visibility and present a great variety of themes. The lack of standardized labeling of links, redundant access and little magnification of the images are significant drawbacks. There should be more informative contextualization of the photos, enhancing the hypertext linkage between the galleries and information pages to which they refer.