Literature Review

Consumption of online news and industry practices

Most Canadian journalism schools aim to prepare students to work in the online news industry. Many arrange internships at organizations to assist them. So, in order to discuss benchmarks for student achievement, it's important to look at the existing research into the practices of online news outlets and the research that supports them.

Fredin (1997) conceptualized online news stories as being truly non-linear documents that "through their invitational structure may bring a more flexible and profound understanding of issues than many people are currently able to get as a practical matter from existing media" (p. 39). He contended that simply offering external links in stories was insufficient to satisfy the needs of online news consumers. He envisioned narratives built in sections and associated via hypertext that blurred the distinction between traditional, stand-alone stories offered by news outlets. These narratives, he called "metastories," would include features such as on-demand glossaries of frequently referenced names and topics, and also functions that would allow users to apply their own summaries to specific story elements. The goal was to allow users to construct their own stories by choosing the story elements that interested them.

In reality, few media outlets have taken up the challenge of offering news in narrative structures as complicated as Fredin envisioned. Massey (2004) found "the practice of non-linear storytelling for daily news was rare" in a survey of 38 U.S. daily news sites (p. 100). He speculated that this could be related to findings in the Brill (2001) survey that few online journalists were producing original stories.

However, the fundamental element of Fredin's vision -- narratives built from sections and related by hypertext links -- is a structure that many researchers see as useful for online audiences.

Ketterer (2001) found that news consumers want more from their online publications than they can get from printed newspapers. His study found they drew significant value from being able to follow links in a news story according to their interest. He concluded that, "participants who had links [in the version of the story they were exposed to] "spent more time reading and were better informed than those who did not" (p. 11). He believed this supported a story model of layered information, where "links provide more information to those who want it" (p. 100).

Indeed, authors of online journalism textbooks frequently cite this model for online information, often attributed to the research of usability expert Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen (1997b) found that online readers disliked scrolling and instead preferred background information relegated to secondary pages. He recommended authors "make text short without sacrificing depth of content by splitting the information up into multiple nodes connected by hypertext links" (Nielsen, 1997b).

Online journalism textbook authors have concluded from this research that online journalists should create stories layers or tiers. They argue this format is especially useful when authors add sidebar information, background details or multimedia elements. Ward (2002) argues, "separating the story into chunks ... increases the number of entry points for the distinctive elements of online" (p. 124). De Wolk (2001) says, "The journalist can add as much information and as many layers as necessary to tell the story well" (p. 14).

However, this model of layered news stories has been poorly researched to date. And the few existing studies provide unclear endorsements.

Lowrey (2004) found that while non-linear story formats gave readers a greater sense of control of the story, they had no significant effect on the degree of perceived credibility, reader involvement or knowledge acquisition in relation to the same story presented in a non-linear format. He concluded further that, "these findings sound a cautionary note to online journalists and to online journalism instructors who have unquestionably endorsed non-linear formats for web-based news stories" (p. 93). He concluded further that "media educators should be cautious and reflective in teaching the techniques of 'chunking', 'layering' and associating linking in the production of web news" (p. 94).

Further, Van Oosendorp and Nimwegen (1998) argued that news consumers had a limited capacity to absorb linked information. They found that news readers had lower levels of recall for information they had to scroll to find a link to.

Still, researchers of online news consumers have found support for many of Nielsen's other recommendations. Nielsen's research led him to conclude people should author web pages in a format that is scannable and concise. He recommended generous use of story summaries, highlighted keywords and bullet lists. One of his main conclusions was support for a story model long used in print journalism -- the inverted pyramid, whereby reporters start their story off with a general summary and then proceed to add increasingly more specific details. The arguments for this story structure online have resulted in features common on many web stories -- nutgraphs, or sub headlines, that provide a level of story summary secondary to the headline, and bolded subheads sprinkled throughout the story that aim to offer the reader further snapshots of the story.

In studying how news readers respond to stories in layers and links, researchers found that readers crave summaries of the story both on the page itself and in links connecting to it (Lowrey 1999; Vargo, Schierhorn, Wearden, Schierhorn, Endres, and Tabar, 2000). Vargo et al. (2000) concluded that readers want as much information as possible in deciding whether or not to click or reader further into a story. They argued: "It is evident that the more information they had, the more comfortably they could make that decision" (p. 52).

As well, researchers at Stanford University and the Poynter Institute for Journalism found in their 2000 study of online news readers' eye movements that eyes go first -- before photos or graphics -- to text that contains briefs or captions (Lewenstein, Edwards, Tatar and DeVigal, 2000). A follow-up survey by Outing and Ruel in 2004 provided further evidence that summary descriptions in news stories were popular with readers.

However, news outlets that in the 1990s featured stories consisting solely of text and static images have, for the past few years, been including multimedia elements -- content with audio, video or animations coupled with text, typically in Flash format -- to their stories. Still, this is a fairly recent development. At least until the early years of this decade, few online news outlets used multimedia (Dibean and Garrison, 2001; Harper, 1996; Kamerer and Bressers, 1998). However, Greer and Mensing (2004) found that two thirds of U.S. newspapers employed multimedia features on their sites.

Many online journalism textbook authors assert that multimedia is a key tool in the telling of news stories online. De Wolk (2001), for example, contends that multimedia provides the news consumer with a richer experience than text, arguing, "Multimedia is a hallmark of what will distinguish the news and information of the future. ... The ability to click to see, hear and read more or to send a message to someone in the story provides the audience with an enormous amount of power" (p. 16).

Indeed Zerba (2003) found that the primary reason online news consumers clicked on multimedia packages was because they were interested in finding out more about the story -- not because they were intrigued by the gimmickry of the technology.

However, other studies suggest that multimedia offers few benefits to the news consumer. The eyetrack study of Outing and Ruel (2004) found that news consumers had better recall of information in text than in multimedia graphic format -- especially when the reader was unfamiliar with the topic at hand. Sundar (2000) drew a similar conclusion. Berry (2001) found multimedia in a news story didn't affect comprehension, recall or interest in the story. Further, Nielsen (2005) said eyetracking data suggests the typical news report format that includes "talking heads" -- either interviewees or reporters talking onscreen -- frequently bores online audiences to distraction within seconds. He used the data to bolster his contention that video, at least, needs to be used in only selective circumstances online.

As De Wolk (2001) suggested, interactivity too is a key attribute of the online experience. At its simplest, it can take the form of an e-mail link to the reporter's address, but in more advanced applications includes live chats, polls, surveys, or discussion board forums for audience feedback (Deuze, 1999; Schultz, 1999).

Researchers found that, until the beginning of this decade, few online news sites had interactive functions (Kamerer and Bressers, 1998; Massey & Levy, 1999; Schultz, 1999). Even a few years later, Greer & Mensing (2004) found that "although interactive features are significantly more prevalent today than in 1997, the only real growth in interactivity was the addition of reporters' e-mail addresses" (p. 109). They found that only 15.9 % of sites featured had any real-time interactivity and suggested that hosting successful interactive elements, such as discussion forums, remained a challenge for many news outlets.

Still, cheap, easy-to-use interactive software has fuelled an explosion in citizen media -- blogs and collaborative news sites -- since 2003. A study published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in July 2006 estimates 12 million Americans keep a blog and 34% consider themselves to be journalists. The vast majority (90%) had interactive features, such as discussion areas on their sites.

Finally, Wei (2006) suggests "the news industry is undergoing a period of transformation" driven by "emerging collaborative news organizations (such as OhMyNews, Wikinews, Global Voices, Digg, Slashdot, Newsvine, and Now Public) where the degree of innovation is most dramatic. He analyzed 3,167 responses from participants in collaborative communities and found that while only a small percentage mentioned an interest in pursuing journalism, "the potential for greater integration of mobile devices promises ... that even more interesting collaborative news models will emerge" (para. 672).