Caption contest

A caption contest or caption competition is a competition between multiple participants, who are required to give the best description for a certain image offered by the contest organizer. Rules and information about the competition process are also given by the competition organizer.

General information

Caption contest participants have to describe a given image as accurately and originally or drawing), caption format (description of a situation or a dialogue), as well as judging criteria. The competition organizer is required to give information about caption submission rules and other information that is important for the contest.

Caption contests are mainly arranged as an amusement, and they can be organized under different conditions (between separate individuals, in public events, mass media, etc.), as well as using various means (drawn pictures on paper, digital image, printed image, press publication, etc.). Traditionally, the most popular and typical format has been publication of caption contests in newspapers or magazines, but with the development of modern technologies, it is also very popular to organize caption contests on the Internet.

Caption contests can be used not only as an entertainment but also for other purposes, such as newspaper promotion, bringing forward a certain problem, or product advertisement. An important aspect of caption competition is to look at an object, event or issue from unusual point of view.

The caption, unless competition rules do not restrict, can be in any form of literary expression – prose, poetry, as one word or a word play. Usually the submitted captions are judged by the originality and wit, but not always the decisive assessment is humour. It is generally assumed that the caption has to describe image as precisely as possible, so both humour and precision are equally important.

As caption writing is an art of words, it is rarely possible to evaluate the superiority of one caption over others accurately and objectively. Consequently, the judging of submitted captions is usually quite subjective. Sometimes competition rules limit caption size, but usually the caption is no longer than one sentence (10–20 words). As an exception, the caption can consist of several sentences. Usually it is not allowed to use profane or offensive language in submitted captions.

In several caption contests, winners are awarded with prizes.

History

It is considered that the origins of caption contests are related to the increase of popularity of cartoons and comics as well as widespread use of illustrations and the rise of photojournalism in printed media at the end of the 19th century. All these areas share the combination of words and images that could be multiplied and made available to a wide audience with the beginnings of mass printing and wide spread of newspapers and magazines.

From currently available information, the first caption contests in printed media appeared in the U.S. press of the late 19th century (such as ''Life'' magazine which was published from year 1883 to 1936). At that time these competitions were called ''picture title'' or ''picture headline'' contests, but their concept and meaning was identical to current caption contests. It must be considered, that the term ''caption'' in its present sense firstly appeared in English language only in the first half of the 20th century.

In the beginning of the 20th century, at least in the U.S. press (for example, ''The San Francisco Call'', '' The Daily News'', ''The Bridgeport Telegram'') caption contests were already quite popular. In these competitions drawn pictures and cartoons were mainly used. Photo caption contests appeared little later with the improvement of printing quality (towards the second quarter of 20th century).

During the course of the 20th century, caption contests were published in printed media in many countries of the world. For example, in Soviet Union one of the first caption contests was published in daily newspaper ''Izvestia'' Sunday supplement ''Nedelya'' (''The Week'') at the beginning of the 1960s. Little later a newspaper ''Literaturnaya gazeta'' began to publish caption contests that became very popular and they are part of this newspaper up until now.

The spread of caption contests increased even more with the emergence of the Internet by the end of the 20th century, and at the beginning of the 21st century. Internet has made the organization of caption contests and participation in them possible for wide audiences across the world.

Present situation

Although a considerable amount of caption contests are now on Internet, caption contests in printed media still exist and are quite popular. A very popular and prominent is a weekly caption contest published in American magazine ''The New Yorker''.Russell Adams. "How About Never-Is Never Good for You?" ''The Wall Street Journal'', September 10, 2011.
/ref> The contest first appeared in 1998 and has been published regularly in each issue since 2005. Each week several thousand participants take part in this competition. On the Internet, a very popular is the weekly caption competition on ''BBC
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