Blink and You Miss it: Measuring News Readers' Attention to Interpretative Journalism Cues

Studies have shown that newsreaders often have a difficult time distinguishing between different article types and, anecdotally, were oblivious to the text cues that news organizations offered to help make the distinctions. Inquiry into how news readers come to conclusions regarding news content is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journalism practice 2022-07, Vol.16 (6), p.1192-1208
Main Authors: Santana, Arthur D., Hopp, Toby
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Eye-tracking
interpretive journalism
objective journalism
online news
procedural news knowledge
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Summary:Studies have shown that newsreaders often have a difficult time distinguishing between different article types and, anecdotally, were oblivious to the text cues that news organizations offered to help make the distinctions. Inquiry into how news readers come to conclusions regarding news content is critical in light of the apparent emergence of so-called interpretative journalism stories-pieces that depart from a straightforward objective approach to the news by subjectively analyzing news content. The goal of this study is to empirically assess the degree to which news readers make visual contact with cues signifying article type, usually with the word "analysis" above the headline. Specifically, the eye movement of 250 college-going US news readers was tracked to determine if they cast their gaze on the textual cues used by two major online newspapers to signify article type. Results revealed that news readers infrequently made eye contact with such cues. Findings give rise to questions about the ways that online news is displayed and understood by audiences.
ISSN:1751-2786
1751-2794
DOI:10.1080/17512786.2020.1827968