joao

Hypertext newswriting

João Canavilhas

9th International Symposium on Online Journalism

UT Austin, April 5, 2008

Effects on satisfaction, comprehension and attitudes

1. Attitude regarding the journalistic product

Dependent Measures:

Innovation: contents add something new to the information they knowAdequation: coherence between content and the medium (web) Expectations: predisposition to interact with contents

2. Perception of theme comprehension

3. Satisfaction

comprehension perception: the news is understoodcontextual perception: the theme has been sufficiently explored

Research question:Do readers value the use of hypertext in news?

Participants: 50 students from the University of Beira Interior

Data analysis: Statistical tests (student´s t, variance analysis, and chi-square tests) were used and with the support of SPSS

Procedure: Two news with the same textual content:

1

Written following the inverted pyramid technique and in the lead the six fundamental questions were answered: who, what, when, why, and how. Text groups separated by a title.

2

First text answering the six fundamental questions. The information which in the first version was presented in texts separated by a title, was here replaced by information groups linked through words inserted in the lead text.

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impact on attitudes

Significant differences in the innovation item (t(46)=-3,542, p<0,001)

In both cases hypertextual group presented higher levels

Significant differences in the adequation item (t(46)=-3,542, p<0,001)

Findings

impact on attitudes

impact on compreension

Significant differences in comprehensionHypertextual group presented higher levels of comprehension perception

Findings

impact on satisfaction

Differences in predisposition between groups were also identified

The group which read the hypertextual news presented higher levels of satisfaction

Findings

1. HYPERTEXTUAL writing has a significant impact on attitudes, on comprehension perception, and on the satisfaction levels of readers of web news.

conclusions

2. Journalism needs new answers: 5 W’s and 1 H in webjournalism

WHEN to publish (immediately on the web, not on the next paper edition)

WHICH kind of content to link (need of a multimedia grammar)

HOW to link (in-text links, not on a menu)

WHAT can we do with so much information (new paradigm)

WHERE to link (words with a strong semantic connection)

WHO is the important one (reader, not the journalist)

Thank you

9th International Symposium on Online Journalism

UT Austin, April 5, 2008

jc@ubi.pt

http://www.labcom.pt

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