Updated Monday, March 30, at 06:20 am EST
As I was involved with reading Ana Bernal Triviño’s thesis to offer my suggestions during the course of its preparation, I developed a key interest in Ana’s research. Now that she has completed her doctoral work, I decided to do a three-minute interview with her, to bring you highlights of her research findings.
Mario: Ana, you have just completed a doctoral thesis that has great significance for all of us in journalism. You have concentrated on how “news” is perceived online in Spain. What inspired you to follow that line of research?
Ana: When I started my doctoral studies, I became aware of the EyeTrack research (Poynter Institute for Media Studies), as it indicated where the eyes went first, what truly impacted readers. However, I was discovering that , in Spain, particularly, young people were more likely to consume news online than on paper, or even television. So, I thought: Why is this change taking place? Why are the young opting for online as opposed to any other medium? I thought that, in addition to the content, the online medium had to have some specific design elements that attracted this specific audience. Then I realized that in Spain, young people have grown up in a sort of parallel environment to the introduction of the new technologies. Their visual awareness and training is very different from those of the generations that preceded them.
So, if Internet is their preferred mode of getting information, how satisfied are they with the design of websites? Is there something about the design of websites that might bother them?
Mario: If you were the advisor to a media house in Spain, or any other country in the world, and based on the findings of your study, what three important points would you recommend as essential to guarantee the succesful future of the news business?
Ana: First, the obvious: One must adapt news to the medium thru which it will be presented. Abandon the old idea that what is good design for print constitutes good design for online. We still have many newspapers in Spain that simply dump every bit of their printed content online, something which, of course, disappoints young users.
Second, I would suggest introducing as a minimum one photo and one video per online edition. It is essential to include an audiovisual component for the news, something that will impact these young users. Something they seem to value highly. If not, young users in my study admit that without visuals for the information, they abandon the site, unless the content is of tremendous interest to them. My study showed a clear preference for audiovisual elements. The users also mentioned that audiovisual elements reinforce the credibility of the news. Especially with video, the news can be communicated in seconds.
Third, since users in my study do complain about eye fatigue while reading on the screen, it is imortant to provide texts set in type that is easy to read, for example sans serif fonts, and bigger rather than smaller, with brief paragraphs, separated by white space, con clarity on each page. Users also like when certain words or key phrases are highlighted in bold. Emphatically, users in the study preferred sans serif fonts. This is not true for headlines, where the users did not mind if a headline was set in Times, for example. For texts, however, users in the study preferred Verdana or Arial.
These are the areas of design, but my study also included questions about content and utilization of one medium over the other. In interviews conducted during the study, users told us that they preferred reading online as opposed to print because the digital medium adapted better to their lifestyle and the pace of their lives, and, most importantly, because they could consume the information when they wanted with a variety of multimedia elements available, such as audio and video.
Mario: You are young, a member of the generation about which your study is based, and you have just emerged from a doctoral program in journalism, so what do you think of the future of newspapers, of printed journalism? How do you see the road ahead?
Ana: The printed press must adpat to the new times. It should look for formulas that will guarantee it success. But I don’t think that newspapers will disappear. It is the first mode of communication, and it still gets attached to such values as credibility and prestige. However, and because of cost reasons, it is possible that newspapers will have to look for alterantive formulas for survival, without losing their personalities, value and that which makes them unique. I think that, among other recommendations, there should be the possibility of watching videos by simply using a bar code which is presented next to each news item. These are things that can help newspapers compete with the Internet. It is also possible, that as suggested by many of the young users in my study, that circulations will be reduced. In addition, newspapers should pay attention to their design, and modify it in many cases, Also, pay more attention to content strategies of free newspapers.
The young users in our study reject excessively long texts and favor shorter texts as found in freely distributed newspapers. I think this is what I see happening for the next 50 years, but, let’s say, 100 years, that is another story. It depends on many factors, such as the world economy. But, remember, one medium after another has emerged, and not necessarily eliminated the previous media, as is the case of radio and television. At the end, it will be up to the editors to analyze how consumers use the news and information, then make decisions that will be wise economically as well as editorially.
Information about Ana Bernal Triviño’s doctoral thesis (written in Spanish):
TITLE: Preferencias del diseño de la información periodística en Internet de los jóvenes
INSTITUTION: Universidad de Málaga (España)
SUPERVISING PROFESSORS: Dr. María Ángeles Cabrera, Dr. Francisco Javier Barón
CONTACT INFORMATION:Those interested in contacting Dr. Ana Bernal Triviño for more information:
anaisbernal2000@gmail.com
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TheMarioBlog posting #228