An Integrated Framework of Newspaper Advertising: A Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

The article develops an integrated framework for analysing newspaper advertising, based on extant theoretical and practical knowledge on the subject. The framework is subsequently used to examine changes in 100 elements of newspaper advertisements over time. For this purpose, 2,250 illustrated advertisements were systematically extracted from national newspapers published in Cyprus during the period 1900-1974. Each advertisement was content-analysed by independent coders, based on a coding frame focusing on three major parts: copy (headlines, subheads, and body copy), art (illustrations, identification marks, and typography), and layout. The analysis revealed that: (a) certain advertising elements are systematically used more frequently than others, irrespective of time

(b) there are significant variations in the use of most of the advertising elements examined among different time periods

and (c) while the use of some of these elements increases systematically over time, others show a steady decrease.