The Digital Daily: How Will Readers React?

As publishers make the transition from ink-on-paper to digitalized messages, researchers must ask whether the system is the solution. Are there advantages to presenting newspaper content on computers? Or do people prefer to handle paper? A study reported subjects' self-report responses regarding interface between people (experimental subjects) and modality (paper, computer, multimedia). Each of the 75 subjects participating in the study were given questionnaires to rate their responses to the different media. Fifty-five of the participants were U.S. undergraduate students enrolled in journalism classes. Twenty subjects were university library employees, recruited as "expert" searchers. The study revealed significant effects for interestingness, pleasingness, image interestingness, and image pleasantness as a function of modality. For each of these measures, multimedia was rated the highest, followed by computer and paper. Although the study did not address memory, the results suggest that the primacy of print theory may be losing its predictive power. No effect was found for text as a function of modality. Perhaps perceived differences between modalities are diminishing. Further research might confirm this suggestion. Researchers may begin to notice less and less cognitive and behavioral resistance to computerized information delivery systems. And they may notice more resistance to ink-on-paper. To meet such evolving expectations, researchers and newspaper professionals may apply results of this study to design effective interactive multimedia systems and content. (Seven figures and two data tables are included. Contains 53 references.) (TB)