Online vs. Print

if:book has an interesting post concerning the future of print media – most specifically newspapers. The post references material suggesting that print will be around for a long time for certain applications.

Print reading, he says, tends toward the sustained and immersive, the long-form linear narrative. Computer reading, on the other hand, is multi-tasky — distracted, social, bite-sized, multidirectional. (Cory Doctorow)

The post also includes reference to a new eye-movement study that concludes readers process online stories more extensively than that traditional newspaper format (see if:book link for more information and link). Such data may require careful interpretation – newspaper stories (if I remember how writers create stories) are written in a way that positions important and summary information early within the story and then provide details. Such stories are written to allow readers with different motives to process the stories differently. My point – the media type and the media format may be confounded and this connection must be considered in interpretation.

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