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Website Features of the Top 100 Circulation U.S. Newspapers. Heather Heater, Anita Ford, Brad Beckwith, Jeremy Lyons, Kris Miller and Bob Bergland Missouri Western State University. Overview.
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Website Features of the Top 100 Circulation U.S. Newspapers Heather Heater, Anita Ford, Brad Beckwith, Jeremy Lyons, Kris Miller and Bob Bergland Missouri Western State University
Overview • In 2006, The Bivings Group conducted a study of the websites of the Top 100 circulation newspapers in the U.S. • The goal of our study was 1) Update and compare their results with 2012 data 2) Research the use of social media and other new features among the newspapers 3) Provide a baseline for future studies
Background Literature First comprehensive studies of U.S. dailies done in 1997 • Peng et. al study of website design and features on 80 newspapers • Kamerer and Bressers study of national vs local news on websites • Shultz: Content analysis of features of 100 newspaper websites, stratified by size
Background Literature Some other key studies: Greer & Mensing’s 1997-2003 longitudinal study Huang et. al (survey, 2006) Sparks, Young & Darnell 2006—100 Canada media websites 2006 Bivings Group—Top 100, Russial’s 2008 survey of 210 newspapers over 30,000 circulation Bergland, et. al. 2008 analysis of 362 dailies
Methodology • Chose content analysis over survey method • Largely repeated methodology of Bivings Group 2006 study, with3main differences • 1) Used current list of Top 100 U.S. newspapers, which has changed slightly since the list Bivings used • 2) Used a two-pass system to aid in reliability of data • 3) Expanded list of features from 14 to 36 Note: this paper only looks at MM/Interactivity; A future paper will examine social media/distribution
Methodology Conducted pilot test of 10 sites to ensure inter-rater reliability (94%) First pass was conducted in mid-October Second pass was conducted one week after first pass, only adding features not seen on first pass, since there would be no way to verify that a feature wasn’t there before. A total of 212 items were added in the second pass in the 3,600-item dataset (5.9%)
2006 vs 2012 Interactivity, Multimedia and Distribution Features
Conclusions • Interactivity has increased, with blogs and comments after articles jumping the most and reaching almost 100% • Also not surprisingly, self-produced video has also almost reached the full saturation point • Tied in with comments and a gradual move toward paywalls, registration has also increased significantly, nearly tripling • Advances in Content Management Systems and the focus on the reader has resulted in features like Most Popular/Commented/Recommended to also nearly triple
Future Research • Analyze more distribution and social media features • Break down data by ownership, size • Follow-up survey/interviews to explain how/why • Repeat study in 4-5 years
Thanks! • For a copy of this presentation email bergland@missouriwestern.edu