Page 112 - 4188

110

where the design suggests how the news could be read, rather than how
it should be read.
For the publishers, there are two advantages to this approach. First,
the audience of online newspapers is spread over a larger spectrum

compared to the print medium, as geographic limitations do not apply in
the Internet (Salaverria, 2005). That makes it more difficult for the
editors and designers to decide what kind of presentation would be the

best for all. Second, research shows that most traffic to the e-
newspaper’s web site comes from searches rather than by the “front
door” (Annual report on American Journalism, 2008). This means that
for readers who are visiting the e-newspaper via links, the suggestions

made by the design of the main page have less significance.
Although at a first glance this tendency of design appears to give a
lot of power to the reader, the reality might be different. Even if more

control might be desirable for the reader, some kind of guidance in a
crowded web page might be equally necessary (Li, 2006). One way to
achieve this balance between freedom and guidance is to focus on the

user-friendliness of the design: it should be as simple, clear and easy to
use as possible, with simple language and easy to understand icons or
graphics for labelling (U.S., 2006).

While flashy elements might be an advantage to attract users to the
page, they might slow the downloading time and create difficulty in the
reading experience (U.S., 2006). Since reading the news is about getting
useful information on time, the ability to reach the news quickly might

be considered more important than the presentation. Photos and
illustrations are entry points to stories both in print and online
newspapers (Lowrey, 1999). In the case of online newspapers, the

technology provides various multimedia elements such as video,
animation, photos, maps as well as audio. This abundance of choices
sometimes results in redundancy of content (Lowrey, 1999).
Interactive elements and customization

The ability to present multiple interactive elements is one of the
most salient features of e-newspapers (Spyridou & Veglis , 2008).
Interactivity can be broadly defined as the reader’s use of tools to

control his experience with the web page, as well as send feedback. This
allows many-to-many communication in a medium that has been
traditionally one-to-many (Chung, 2008). Some of the most commonly

used interactive elements in e-newspapers are navigation tools, forum,
comments section, and chat room.