Can we really read it all?

With so many news site and even more sites offering analysis of news there is no way it is possible to consume even a tiny precentage of what is out there.  More often than not most people will not even finish a full article whether it’s online or on paper.  Skimming and scanning pages is the only way to get through any amount of news.  This brings to the fore the power of the headline and it can be interpreted.  Is it safe to just read the headline?

Reading a headline can very often allow the reader to jump to their own conclusion.  Intending to be a teaser for an article many people take the headline as the news itself.  This can happen more often than not with online news and their is just endless amounts that we can read and hunger for news means that we try to consume as much as possible.  However, this can lead to us skimming and scanning articles and infact coming out with less information.  Traditional print media is confined with space thus limiting the amount they publish but cyberspace allowing broken down this barrier.

Online news also brings greater distractions to the reader.  In theory, the more information that is out there, the more we can comsume but in reality it is quiet the opposite.  Text heavy site are easier to click past and a study has revealed that: ‘users will have time to read 28% of the words if they devote all of their time to reading. More realistically, users will read about 20% of the text on the average page.’  The fact is that people will spend more time perceiving the page layout and how to navigate.  It almost seems that as soon as page appears we are trying to find a way to get away from it.

Look how many articles are just a click away and to quote Oscar Wilde, ‘the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.’

How far would you read before you click away?

The New York Times has realised that most people skim online news and has created a prototype to faciliate this form of consumption.  Based on the power of the headline, the New York Times has created the closest online equivalent of having the paper in your hands.  Knowing how to use the facility properly can enhance the productivity of our swift news comsumption.

Hyperlinking – a godsend or merely a distraction?

Hyperlinking allows bloggers to gain and salvage some level of credibility by supplying sources or information to back up their opinions.  Adding these links allow readers to gain background information or to see how you have reached your conclusion.  Links are vital to any blog but there is such a thing as too much.  Not only is it unsightly on a page but it can leave the reader wondering which way to go.

We all know this feeling.

Venkatesh Rao, a Ribbonfarm blogger, goes to great lengths to explain the hyperlink and its power.  As a non-native speaker, he explains the influence hyperlinking can have on an article by increasing its readibility and ease of understanding.

Sam Anderson dealt with the subject of distraction in an article and spoke of the benefits of distracion. In defence of distraction he said:

That famous cookie is a kind of hyperlink: a little blip that launches an associative cascade of a million other subjects. This sort of free-associative wandering is essential to the creative process; one moment of judicious unmindfulness can inspire thousands of hours of mindfulness.

It begs to question whether or not Anderson has ever sat down to catch up on some news and found himself viewing a page that he has absolutely no idea how we got there!  Clicking a hyperlink can often lead to navigation through a minefield of useless/unwanted/unneccesary information.  Hyperlinking is like a Mexican wave that leads to nowhere….but only when used incorrectly.  Brian Joura, who writes for Assoiated Content, spoke of the intrusion of hyperlinking.  In his case, Associated Content took the liberty to insert hyperlinks into words itself and this article is a tribute to a nice clean article.  Despite it looking nice, the article doesn’t really say anything really worth saying other than outlining his dislike of links.

The following video outlines a way that hyperlinks can be made redunant and highlights how the web and web browser can be used to make pages a little easier on the eyes.