Toomer-Cook, Jennifer_MPC_2015

Title Toomer-Cook, Jennifer_MPC_2015
Alternative Title Do Comment Indicators on News Media Websites Influence Reader Behavior?
Creator Toomer-Cook, Jennifer
Collection Name Master of Professional Communication
Description Most news websites today offer online commenting forums placed directly on news stories to encourage public discussion of the day's news and the free exchange of ideas. Comment boards allow readers to communicate directly with the reporter and other readers. They also serve as social recommendation systems, similar to those seen on e-commerce sites. The more comments posted on news articles, the more attractive those articles become to readers. These recommendation systems are helpful to news organizations and their quest for website revenues, largely based on repeat clicks and the length of time readers stay on the site. But they also present challenges for the news industry, including the deprofessionalization of journalism and preservation of journalistic product. Several studies have been conducted on the nature of user-generated content and its effect on readers' perceptions and understanding of the basic information presented in news articles. However, research has not been conducted about the visual behavior of readers when they observe that an article has received comments from other users. If readers are flagged to the fact that a story is getting a lot of traffic in terms of user-generated comments, do they read the comments or the story first? Are readers more inclined to read news stories with a large number of user comments than stories with few or no comments? Does the absence of comment indicators mean fewer readers will visit the comment sections? Do comment readers spend less time on articles than readers who ignore the comment sections? These are questions tested through an eye-tracking study. Variations of two news websites were shown to 40 participants while their eye behavior was measured. Participants also responded to a survey to provide deeper insight into online news behaviors and comment board perceptions. The study provides a quantitative analysis of participants' eye behavior and self-reported online news habits, engagement, and perceptions of online news comment forums.
Subject Journalism; Eye tracking; Self-evaluation
Keywords Commenting forums; News websites; News articles--electronic; Deprofessionalization of journalism
Digital Publisher Stewart Library, Weber State University
Date 2015
Language eng
Rights The author has granted Weber State University Archives a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce their theses, in whole or in part, in electronic or paper form and to make it available to the general public at no charge. The author retains all other rights.
Source University Archives Electronic Records; Master of Professional Communication. Stewart Library, Weber State University
OCR Text Show
Format application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6qpjmc3
Setname wsu_smt
ID 96727
Reference URL https://digital.weber.edu/ark:/87278/s6qpjmc3