“An eye for news: Implications of usability research for online news design ”

1. “An eye for news: Implications of usability research for online news design” Research shows 40 per cent of those aged under 30 are regular readers of daily newspapers compared to 62 per cent of older adults. http://www.facebook.com/Poynter 2012 JEAA Conference Jan Harkin

2. Citizen journalism “Freedom of speech threatens to become universal, empowering bloggers to articulate, advocate, proselytise, and sometimes mis-inform, dis-inform, vilify, threaten and subvert – all of the things journalists once had pretty much to themselves.” (Knight, 2008, p. 118) “But it boils down to something simple; our audience knows more than we do, and they don’t have to settle for half-baked coverage when they can come into the kitchen themselves….” (Gillmor, 2003 cited in Knight, 2008, p. 120)

3. Joining the media elite Content-related skills, such as news judgment and copy editing, consistently top lists of what online professionals want their staff to have. (Magee, 2006; Fahmy, 2008) “(W)hen asked what they were looking for in new hires, digital media skills emerged as the most important qualification compared to only 28 per cent who nominated writing skills.” (McKnight & O’Donnell, 2012) 1 digital media skills (46%)2 initiative, energy, enthusiasm 3 news sense (36%)4 courage, persistence 5 writing skills (28%) (McKnight & O’Donnell, 2012)

4. Punctuation has its uses … Correction: tailsinc.com says this cover “WAS in fact Photoshoppedand is NOT what we published”.

5. Keeping it clean … “Copy editors are the last line of defense in elevating newspapers above error-riddled bloggings. a properly editted paper is essential in not only maintaingin quality but in keeping a reader with in a story, as evryone knows that mistakes are like speed bumps when trying to digest proper content. As a writer for this paper, I value what copy editors bring to the page, as i have been known to make some erors from time to time. Steve Murray, National Post columnist, Toronto.

6. Picking a shonk online “Imagine a manufacturing company that didn’t have a quality-control department. They would be in hot water pretty quick if things started going out defective.” American Copy Editors Society president Chris Wienandt, cited in Stepp, 2009

7. Why text matters • Reading online news: • Readers fixate on text first (almost 80% of cases) - (Lewenstein et al., 2000) • Particularly on briefs, captions and lists (Barthelson, 2002; Quinn et al., 2007) • This is particularly true on secondary and further page levels (e.g. links to full article pages) (Barthelson, 2002; Leckner, 2007; Zambarbieri et al., 2008).” • Leckner, 2012, p. 169

8. What the number reallymean… Grueskin (2011) cites the 2010 Pew* analysis of Nielsen media statistics: ‘ “The average visitor spends only 3 minutes, 4 seconds per session on the typical news sites,” the study says. “No one keeps visitors very long.” And at top-trafficked news sites, ranging from Yahoo News to The Washington Post to Fox News, most people visit just a few times per month.’ *PEW Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducts public opinion polling and social science research (www.pewinternet.org)

9. Mass audience vs engaged audience “The problem with SEO [search engine optimisation] is, the visitors are snackers … If people come in through the front door [the home page], they read seven to eight pages. If they come in the side door [such as a search engine], they read maybe two.” Examiner.com chief executive Rick Blair, cited in Grueskin 2011 [Examiner.com posts articles from freelancers on topics of their choice, using search engine optimisation to attract readers. Grueskin says page views are a key factor in how much writers are paid and Examiner “coaches its writers on deploying social media to broaden the influence of their stories”.]

10. Size matters Readers, particularly women and younger readers, prefer a more compact format. (Schumacher, 2007 and Sternvik, 2009, cited in Leckner, 2012) “While column layout is effective in guiding visual attention, over-dense layouts may have an adverse effect because more visual structure increases the number of stimuli competing for attention, and in response users only scan the upper parts of pages.” (Sutcliffe & Namoun, 2012)

11. “We still have to be editors. I’ve read 80-inch stories that I could have read another 20 inches on. And I’ve read 10-inch stories that were too long.” Michael Days, editor of Philadelphia Daily News, a partner in Poynter Institute’s EyeTrack07 (cited in Poynter 2011) vol25.typepad.com

12. KISS principle Reading decreased as story length increased Poynter Institute’s EyeTrack 07

13. Ethics online “The business model for blogs encourages publishers and writers to value the click above other potential goals, such as truth, accuracy, or fairness. … “For a publisher, an ideal blog post strikes several nerves: It’s provocative, it has a simple hook, it generates links and traffic, and it leaves enough out for follow-ups. In other words, it is overstated, polarizing, and incomplete. And it must fulfil these conditions cheaply and at the lightning speed of the web. The divergence of interests is clear: what is good for online publishers is bad for their readers and, cumulatively, for culture itself. (Holiday, 2012) (Bolding is mine)

14. When clicks matter Holiday (2012) says bloggers are encouraged to distort news to maximise payment per click: “When examining a claim, even a dubious claim, don’t dismiss with a skeptical headline before getting to your main argument. Because nobody will get to your main argument.” (Memo to his bloggers from Gawker’s Nick Denton, cited in Holiday, 2012)

15. Making a point with style Inverted pyramid style: most important information at the top, descending in order of importance as you move through the story Narrative style: more personal style of storytelling – lead with one person’s story and generalise to a wider context – present facts and real-life observations using creative writing techniques “Recognition for story details was more accurate for stories in narrative than inverted pyramid style.” Wise et al. 2009, p. 532

16. Cognitive processing Encoding: new information taken into short term memory Retrieval: stored information from long-term memory moved to working memory to help make sense of new information Storage: some of the new information, with the retrieved information, stored into long-term memory Cognitive processing = harder heart rate decreases

17. Making content count … “Dear Mrs Dunkley, you’re long gone, and I’m nearly 70. But oh, I wish you weren’t dead….I would like to thank you…. Mrs Dunkley, you taught me everything I know. Other teachers, later, consolidated it. But you were the one who laid the groundwork. You showed me the glory and the power of an English sentence, and the skills I would need to build one. You put into my hands the tools for the job.” Helen Garner 2012

18. Making news vs breaking news The Ethnic Communities’ Council has launched a mentoring program for journalism students from multicultural and refugee backgrounds (with SBS and Deakin University in Victoria and Macquarie University in NSW) “The skills, knowledge and experience levels they bring with them may not have the same value here. “These imbalances can make their transition to fully contributing members of society very difficult, if not impossible.” Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria chairman Joe Caputo at the launch of the Victorian program, September 2012

19. Someone like me … “It was a big deal to see someone of ethnic background reading the news. People when they see themselves reflected back on the television screen feel they belong.” SBS director Peter Khalil 2012 George Donikianreads a news bulletin on Channel O-28 in 1982.

20. “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” Prof.Halford E. Luccock, Yale University Luccock’s slogan: “I believe in comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.” Time Magazine, 1953

21. References Days, Michael, 2011, cited in “Eyetracking the news: A study of print and online reading”, Poynter Institute, accessed November 6, 2012 at http://www.poynter.org/extra/Eyetrack/keys_01.html Ewart, Jacqui & Gregor, Shirley, 2001, “Online journalists need more than the ABC’s of journalism: the skills and attributes for online news”, Australian Journalism Review, v.23, no.1, July 2001, pp. 43-56. Fahmy, Shahira, 2008, “How online journalists rank importance of news skills”, Newspaper Research Journal, Spring 2008, Vol 29, Issue 2, pp. 23-39. Garner, Helen, 2012, “Dear Mrs Dunkley”, The Age Sunday Life Magazine, October 31, 2012, pp. 16-7. Gerlis, Alez, 2008, “Who is a journalist?”, Journalism Studies, February 6, 2008, accessed November 6, 2012 at http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy-m.deakin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/14616700701768204 Grueskin, Bill, Seave, Ava & Graves, Lucas, 2011, “The Economics of Digital Journalism”, in The Story so far: What we know about digital journalism, Columbia Journalism Review, accessed November 27 at http://www.cjr.org/the_business_of_digital_journalism/chapter_two_traffic_patterns.php?page=2 Holiday, Ryan, 2012, “Our gullible press”, Columbia Journalism Review, July 19, 2012, accessed November 27 at http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/media_manipulator_ryan_holiday.php?page=all Josephson, Sheree, 2008, “Keeping your readers’ eyes on the screen: An eye-tracking study comparing sans serif and serif typefaces”, Visual Communication Quarterly, March 2008, pp.67-79. Kaevand, Raul, 2012, “15 Must-Know Facts on How People View Websites”, accessed November 6, 2012 at http://www.dreamgrow.com/15-must-know-facts-on-how-people-view-websites/ Knight, Alan, 2008, “Journalism in the age of blogging”, Journalism Studies, 9:1, 117-131, accessed November 6, 2012 at http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy-m.deakin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/14616700701768204 Leckner, Sara, 2012, “Presentation factors affecting reading behaviour in readers of newspaper media: an eye-tracking perspective”, Visual Communication, 11:163.

22. References cont’d Luccock, Professor Halford E., 1953, “Religion: Go Ye and Relax?”, Time Magazine, April 20, 1953, accessed November 20, 2012 at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822783,00.html. Luccock, Professor Halford E., 2008, cited in Oberle, Cheryl, Knitted Jackets: 20 Designs from Classic to Contemporary, Interweave Press, Colorado, 2008, p.142. McKnight, David & O’Donnell, Penny, 2012, Journalism at the Speed of Bytes, Walkley Foundation for Journalism, Australia. Murray, Steve, 2012, cited in Silverman, Craig, 2012, “Column about ‘lowly’ copy editors elicits hilarious response”, Poynter, accessed November 6, 2012 at http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/regret-the-error/163114/column-about-lowly-copy-editors-elicits-hilarious-response-from-newspaper-colleague/ Stepp, Carl, 2009, “The quality-control quandary”, American Journalism Review, April/May 2009, Vol 31, Issue 2, pp. 42-7. Sutcliffe, Alistair & Namoun , Abdallah, 2012, “Predicting user attention in complex web pages”, Behaviour and Information Technology, Vol 31, Issue 7. Wise, Kevin, Bolls, Paul, Myers, Justin & Sternadori, Miglena, 2009, “When words collide online: How writing style and video intensity affect cognitive processing of online news”, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, pp. 532-546.