The Listening Post

Fonts in the news media

How the way we consume news can be influenced by the way the information is presented.

What is in a font? Typography, the way letters are dressed, the way words are designed may seem secondary to the meaning of the words they house.

In ten seconds the typography conveys all kinds of things to people, without having read a word.

by Mario Garcia, designer, Garcia media

But the way we consume news can be influenced by the way the information is presented.

Form affects content. And in the news media, it affects the authority and the credibility of the stories being told. 

Helvetica conveys more neutrality than Lucida. Arial more sobriety than comic sans.

Then there is the global angle to this story – designers of non-western fonts are up against the homogenising effects of a market dominated by Latin script. 

The Listening Post’s Marcela Pizarro examines how the choice of typography affects the way audiences perceive the news.