science

News Illustrated

News Illustrated is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand News Illustrated rather than just read about it. In short: News Illustrated is a full-page information graphic that runs every Sunday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of 12 newspapers owned by Tribune Company. It tells news stories visually — and in ways that are hard to replicate with traditional journalism.

Key takeaways

News Illustrated belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect News Illustrated to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of News Illustrated from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

News Illustrated is a full-page information graphic that runs every Sunday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of 12 newspapers owned by Tribune Company. It tells news stories visually — and in ways that are hard to replicate with traditional journalism. Subjects range from explaining advances in science to politics, health, sports and physiology.

History

News Illustrated started as a response to reader requests for science coverage. In 1993, Editor Gene Cryer created a weekly color page aimed at engaging young readers and named it Science. Initially, the page published stories from the week that couldn't find their way into the daily paper. Designer/copy editor William McDonald would pick the topic, research it, write it and turn it in to the graphics department. Graphics Editor Lynn Occhiuzzo and her staff then illustrated and designed the page. Once the page progressed, others in the newsroom started taking part, including designer/editor David Baker. The graphics staff also contributed ideas. The page proved popular and was reprinted in 1994 as a book titled "Dancing Honeybees and Other Natural Wonders of Science: An Illustrated Compendium" ISBN 0-8092-3552-8 The credited author was William Lynn Baker, which combined the names of the McDonald, Occhiuzzo and Baker. By 1996, the art department was remade to focus on information graphics and the graphics staff assumed the reporting, writing and production of the page. For a period of two years (1996 to 1998) former senior graphic reporter R. Scott Horner managed the page, developing ideas, researching and creating the pages. In 1998 other artists in the department began regularly producing Science pages. In 1999, it was renamed News Illustrated to reflect a broadening of subject matter to include politics, world events, sports and culture.

Readership News Illustrated reaches more than a million readers every week. The page is published in the Sun-Sentinel, in sister Tribune Company newspapers, including the Orlando Sentinel, and is repurposed for weekly distribution by the McClatchy-Tribune graphics wire service, a collaboration between Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company.

Offshoots News Illustrated has led to two notable sites online. In 1996, graphics director Leavett Biles made the decision to animate News Illustrated content for the Sun-Sentinel's web site. Biles hired Don Wittekind as assistant graphics director and gave him the task of developing a new kind of "multimedia informational graphics." Wittekind and graphics reporter R. Scott Horner launched the paper's first graphic, "Santa's High-Tech Sleigh," in December 1996 and followed with several more serious projects early in 1997. These pioneering efforts led to the creation of a Multimedia Gallery page, which would later be renamed The Edge. In 2008, a News Illustrated blog launched to expand on the printed page with interactivity, information edited out of the page and links to research resources.

Awards News Illustrated has been recognized many times through the years in international competition, most notably by the Society for News Design. Some recent examples:

2005: Three Awards of Excellence: Egg colors [1], Sleep apnea [2], Staff portfolio [3] 2006: Seven Awards of Excellence: African-American migration [4], Global warming (2) [5], High-heeled shoes [6], Oil drilling [7], Treating AIDS [8], Belinda Long-Ivey portfolio [9] 2007: Five Awards of Excellence: Super Bowl XLI [10], Construction cranes [11], Nutrition [12], Pirate life [13], Panama Canal [14]

Sources A practical guide to graphics reporting, Jennifer George-Palilonis ISBN 0240807073 Dancing Honeybees and Other Natural Wonders of Science: An Illustrated Compendium" William Lynn Baker ISBN 0-8092-3552-8 Professional and Technical Writing Strategies: Communicating in Technology and Science (6th Edition), Judith S. VanAlstyne ISBN 0-13-191520-7

Official external links News Illustrated pdf archive News Illustrated blog TheEdge multimedia gallery

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with News Illustrated

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what News Illustrated claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to News Illustrated before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about News Illustrated ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of News Illustrated

In research: News Illustrated appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses News Illustrated in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: News Illustrated is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Graphic design, Illustration, Infographics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for News Illustrated outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study News Illustrated in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what News Illustrated means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain News Illustrated out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is News Illustrated in simple terms?

Why does News Illustrated matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study News Illustrated?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on News Illustrated.