Hear ye! Hear ye! Here is some very significant news. There's an assumption that web news consumers don't pay as much attention to what they read as the buyers of newsprint. But a new US study suggests just the opposite. People who choose to read the news on the net have a greater attention span than print readers. They don't click from site to site as rapidly as might be thought. The myth of the inconstant surfer has been exploded.
According to the EyeTrack07 survey by the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism school, online readers read 77% of what they select while broadsheet newspaper readers read an average of 62% and tabloid readers about 57%. The result even surprised the survey's director, Sara Quinn. "Nearly two-thirds of online readers, once they chose a particular item to read, read all of the text," said Quinn. "That speaks to the power of long-form journalism."
The study - carried out among nearly 600 readers in four US markets, in Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and St. Petersburg, Florida - involved the use of small cameras to test exactly what people were reading and for how long. People were also tested on what they retained from what they read, and this uncovered another interesting phenomenon.
More of them were able to recall information correctly if it had been presented in an "alternative" ways, such as question-and-answer format, a timeline, short sidebar or a list, rather than the traditional straightforward narrative.
"Subjects paid an average of 15% more attention to alternative story forms than to regular story text in print. In broadsheet, this figure rose to 30%," the study stated. I think this finding will delight Robert Thomson, editor of The Times, who regularly employs shorter formats because he is convinced they lure readers.
Is anyone surprised by either of these findings? One thing I've noticed about my own web reading is that I can get through a long story faster than I do in print (and I've always been a fast reader anyway, as many journalists tend to be). I am less sure about the short-form formats. I can see that these draw the eye in print. Why they should do so online I'm unsure. Anyway, fascinating stuff, don't you think?
