The effect of page context on magazine image categorization

Abstract

Image categorization research has created knowledge on the types of attributes humans use in interpreting image similarity. Little effort has gone into studying the effect of any wider contextual factors on the image groupings people create. This paper reports the results of an investigation on the effect of associated text on magazine image categorization. Image journalism professionals performed a two-phase free sorting of 100 test images and the resulting data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively; using grounded theory methods and hierarchical clustering. The categorization behavior of the two groups was rather similar but there was a statistically significant difference in the types of names given to the categories constructed. Results indicate that having page context available results more likely in descriptions based on overall theme or story of the image. When the context is withheld, people are more prone to describe the people, objects and scenes portrayed in the images, and to combine various categorization criteria. This has implications for the design of interfaces for image archival and retrieval.

Comparison of categorization criteria across image genres

“…people, objects and scenery (from a Kodak Photo‐CD, Teeselink et al, 2000; from PhotoDisc, Mojsilovic & Rogowitz, 2001). They can also be selected based on a specific image genre such as vacation images (Vailaya et al, 1998), journalistic images (Laine‐Hernandez & Westman, 2006; Sormunen et al, 1999) or magazine photographs (Laine‐Hernandez & Westman, 2008; Westman & Laine‐Hernandez, 2008), and as such may cover a wide range of semantic content.…”