Research Project

Central Thesis
As newspapers work to meet the challenges of attracting readers, editors and designers are faced with making bold decisions that could bring newspaper usability design closer to that of the Web and television. The central questions are what common behavioral characteristics do viewers, readers and users share that transcend media and how can those commonalities affect newspaper design?
Introduction
On airplanes, business travelers read copies of USA Today, gathering quickly a sense of the news of the day. Eye-catching color photographs, illustrations and graphics coupled with three to four inches of text efficiently convey information in an entertaining manner.
Users of the Website, http://www.msnbc.com click on images, hypertext, video and even links to original sources. The user is offered a variety of methods for accessing information.
On television, the Cable News Network (CNN) provides viewers choices as well. They watch abbreviated versions of the day’s top stories on the “Headline News Channel”, or opt for extended coverage and analysis on CNN.
According to extensive studies conducted by the Readership Institute, of Northwestern University, these three groups, the viewers, the readers and the users share common behavioral characteristics that allow usability experts and designers opportunities to exploit those commonalities.

Expectations of behavior determine design

George Washington’s Farewell Address, at 1,086 lines, took up full pages in the newspapers of the day including, the Philadelphia Gazette. (Ellis, The Founding Brothers. Pp.150-151. Alfred Knopf. 2000)

Washington and his staff expected that readers would read the address in its entirety. There were no “break out boxes”, ‘quote-outs” or illustrations of the President’s staff. Yet, readers devoured each and ever word. Here is the abstract of the address as it appeared in New England’s The Chronicle, a leading newspaper.

No newspaper of the Millennium could dare rely upon text alone to engage or retain readers. Instead, they rely upon the results of countless user research surveys and usability studies that help determine what readers will accept. (http://www.readership.org). What has happened to change the relationship between the reader and the printed page? Some researchers believe the major shift in reader expectations and behavior occurred with the public popularity of television.

No longer were they “readers”; now they were viewers. Rather than having the ability to ignore the advertisements as readers of printed newspapers did, these advertisements were inserted into the content of the program. Viewers had little choice but to watch a program in segments prescribed by the programmers and advertisers.
Thus, the behavioral shift occurred that led viewers to accept smaller amounts of information coupled with images. For the first time, more than the sense of sight was stimulated. Viewers could see, hear and feel along with the characters created on the screen.
Advertisements brought another dimension to the experience for the viewer. These, too, evolved over the decades to become another form of entertainment and information, which further eroded view attention spans and changed the behavior patterns as people interacted with the screen. This required content producers to develop new methodology to encourage viewer retention and return visits. (http//utpress.utoronto.ca/journal/ejournal/simile/accessed March 5, 2005).
According to Rebecca Dumlao’s research into critical viewer thinking and analysis of content, experts in mass media studies utilize the concept of “framing” to synthesize the relationship between content and viewer perception. Developed in 1974, framing allows content producers to pay careful attention one portion of a topic while ignoring another. For example, hypothetically speaking, a producer might divide Washington’s Farewell Address into thematic segments rather than presenting an unedited version to an audience.
Since its inception, framing has been used so consistently among television program producers that it is inherent in the design of both programming and advertising.
Half hour documentaries on national networks are broken into segments, each with a theme that focuses the viewers’ attentions on one element of the information. Other information is often left out or ignored in favor of keeping with this pattern.
For example, a recent segment (Feb. 4, 2005) on ABC’s 20/20 dealt with the safety of organic food. Critics charged that producers failed to tell viewers fully about the credential of their expert. The network never responded to the criticism.
Framing is one methodology incorporated into information presentation to disseminate information in a palatable manner.
According to research by the Readership Institute, audiences have come to expect an “experience” with their chosen medium. In a study conducted in 2003,a generation of younger readers, raised on television’s 15 second commercials,14.5 minute content segments and rapid fire visual edits, expect to be ‘engaged” rather than “told” information. Additionally, they look for a personal interest in the information. In other words, if the information does not matter or evoke a personal response, it is not useful.
(http://www.readership.org/new_readers/data/all_experiences.pdf. Accessed March 30, 2005)
The Readership Institute and 100 newspapers nationwide participated in the study to develop a set of “key experiences” that readers found most important. The term “ readers” was further quantified to define sub-groups that included those who described themselves as light to moderate readers, heavy readers or non-readers. They were from every socio-economic group as well.
In summary, the study found that readers wanted content that dealt with personal interests.
These included such subjective answers as:
· Gives me something to talk about
· Makes me smarter
· Looks out for my personal and community interests
· Value

The survey also asked about inhibitors to a positive reader experience. Surprisingly, one at the top of the list was “too much information.” (http://www.readership.org/new_readers/data/all_experiences.pdf. Accessed March 30, 2005)
How would the first U.S. President’s Farewell Address fared with a 21st century audience in its purest form – un-framed and without any personal caveats to its audience?
Behavior patterns move to the Internet
An entire field of study has been built around the term “usability.” At its core, the term refers to how easily and how efficiently a person can use a medium, whether it is a telephone or laptop computer.
According to usability expert Jakob Nielsen, “Usability is a necessary condition for survival on the Internet. (Nielsen, Jakob, “Usability 101” in Alertbox Newsletter, 8 Nov 2004. Accessed 7 March 2005 http://usenet.com/alertbox)
Although much of usability is subjective in nature, given the unique qualities of individuals, Nielsen offers one consistency. People leave a Web site when they find it difficult to use or face challenges accessing the information for which they are searching.
The key components of usability, according to Nielsen are:
· Learnability – how easy can users access information on their first visit
· Efficiency- after learning, how quickly can users master the basic tasks
· Memorability – after an absence in using the medium, how well do users retain the ability to navigate
· Errors- how many? How to users recover?
· Satisfaction – was the experience a pleasant one, encouraging a return use.
(Nielsen, Jakob, “Usability 101” in Alertbox Newsletter, 8 Nov 2004. Accessed 7 March 2005 http://usenet.com/alertbox)

Using these attributes, Internet programmers and Web site designers develop sites that attract and retain users or send them clicking away in frustration.
Therefore, good design positively exploits these attributes to the advantage of the site and the benefit of the user.

Web users who depend upon the transparent design of a site to help them access information quickly are often unaware of the research that has gone into developing and framing information to help the user.

According to another Nielsen study, users and viewers of television programs share some common behavior responses, building upon their skills developed in other media.

Television viewers are able to suspend their belief system that tells them the images they are watching are real.

“You are not looking at people, you are looking at pictures of people, in the form of glowing dots on a picture tube,” Nielsen stated in his report, “Authentic Behavior In User Testing.”
(Nielsen, Jakob, “Authentic Behavior in User Testing,” Neilsen Norman Group, 14 Feb. 2005. Accessed 4 March 2005 http://usenet.com/alertbox.)

Nielsen states that usability studies show viewers come to believe the scene is real and therefore, they engage with the action on the screen. He said the only time the engagement fails is when viewers must actively work to suspend belief or when they find the scene so unrealistic they do not ever make the initial interface.

This is true of Web users as well. Nielsen research indicates that people who visit the Internet share characteristics with the viewers of television.
In “Acting on User Research,” Nielsen recommends that an understanding of online user behavior is the first step in building an effective design.

Among his findings on user behavior:
· Users accept information presented in small segments
· Build on established behavior patterns, such as the willingness of people to suspend their belief to accept a screen of dots as reality.
· Users “scan’ rather than read actual words
· Users look for the simple patterns they can master and recall
· Users access information in a non-linear pattern.

(Nielsen, Jakob, “Acting on User Research,” Neilsen Norman Group, 8 Nov. 2004. Accessed 4 March 2005 http://usenet.com/alertbox.)

The case for Web design to improve readership in newspapers

The Shelby Star is a 16,000-circulation community newspaper that has successfully published a daily paper (including Sundays) for over a century. Headquartered in Shelby, the county seat of Cleveland County, N.C., the paper can boast that it is the only daily paper to serve the people of the county. At full staff, The Star newsroom employs 19 people, including the editor, managing editor, Web master and a graphic designer.

The paper maintains a loyal readership through its attention to community priorities. These include local school news, church activities and high school and college sports.

To cap that, The Star consistently wins awards for its aggressive reporting, including first place from the N.C. Press Association in 2004 for General Excellence.

For the last year, the newsroom staff, led by its editor, has been engaged in learning how to improve the design and coverage. Utilizing the same research skills the staff uses to develop stories, they are working to make The Star into a reader-friendly, “news that the readers care about” paper, without sacrificing journalistic integrity.

To begin the work, teams analyzed each section of the paper, developed suggestions for innovation, based on the extensive studies complied by the Readership Institute that formulated a set of “Key Reader Imperatives for Growing Readership.”


(McCauley, Todd and Nesbitt, Mary, “consumer Readership Behavior Study” in Readership Study, (Northwestern University Kellogg Institute of Media, Feb. 2004) Accessed 27 Feb. 2005) http://www.readership.org/consumers/building/imperatives/data/Revised%20Report.pdf

At the Star, while the redesign is still underway, this imperative has taken on a major role in the planning, writing and design of content.

In addition to the kinds of stories that a paper covered and the approach to customer service, one of the top four imperatives addresses navigation. It expressly indicates that readers want a newspaper that is easier to read and offers more information in smaller portions. It also calls for repetition of key information throughout a story. For example, an article about changes in city wide garbage pick up would have been “straight copy”, a photo and possible a phone number to call.

Under the “make the paper easier to navigate” imperative, this same article became a half page, filled with shaded boxes where readers found contact numbers, lists of allowed refuse. They also saw several photographs that contained a summary of the new regulations. The body of the article contained frequently asked questions and answers.

Often, the Web master, graphic designer, photographer, copy editor and reporters meet to discuss how to execute content. The result often appears as a print version of a Web page. The overall changes account for readers who behave very much as Web site users. According to the results of one of the studies from the Readership Institute, and The Star has put this information into practice, the major behavior patterns of readers share similarities with Web users.

They scan for content, looking first at headlines, then graphics and photographs.
They rarely read beyond the first thee inches of long copy.
They jump between sections of the paper, most often reading stories and sections out of order.

The amount of time a reader devotes to a specific page in the paper is no more than ten minutes.

Therefore, content developers and designers need to change the fundamental design of information presentation to work to engage the reader for as long as possible.

Conclusion

Those business travelers reading USA Today and the future readers of The Star may never be aware that the behavior they display in accessing Internet sites is so closely aligned with the behavior of reading a newspaper. However, the usability experts and designers have long since made the connection and are successfully utilizing these characteristics to help attract readers and visitors to a corporation’s Web site.

The question remains. Just a television heralded an massive behavior shift that has yet to be concluded, how much impact will the Internet play in what we have taken for granted for more than four centuries – the simple interface of reader to page?

That remains to be seen.

Assignment 14:Writing in the cyber world

Two years ago, a business colleague asked me to help her write materials for her Web site. She wanted to create a “starter site”, as she called it and do it on “the cheap.”

She had it all planned. Go to iVillage (http://www.ivillage.com). Choose a template and fill in the blanks.

“I don’t have the budget for a full-blown Web designer,” she told me.

“I just want to be deemed credible in a world where businesses are expected to have a Web presence.”

“Gotcha!” I replied.

Never mind that I had never written any thing for a Web site.

Never mind that I knew so little as to believe all I had to do was transfer the advertising copy I had written for her brochures and flyers to the Web.

Add a space for contacting her and a list of helpful links, as seen on other Web sites and she would be on the Web.

I really knew it was more complicated than that.
I had written for an interactive kiosk that demonstrated Volvo tractor-trailer to truck drivers who were interested in knowing more. The script for that was written as a series of multiple-choice steps that allowed the kiosk user to see all the available tractor configurations and even custom design and order a rig from the site.

Developing content for the kiosk provided an opportunity for me to learn the terms

“usability” and “user interface” from a UNC Charlotte computer science professor who provided a three-hour overview for our project team.

By the time my friend asked me to write her Web message, I felt capable of creating an effective site. She has since taken down the site.

The real deal

Two years ago, I met the first full-time Web journalists I had ever known. They were young, intense, dedicated writers who created and maintained the News 14 Carolina Web presence. (http://www.News14carolina.com)

They took the same information as I carved into television news stories and created stories, streaming video and links to additional information. Their work brought a new perspective and level to journalism

After a careful comparison of the work of the Web journalists to my own experience, I realized there was so much more to learn that what I had through the kiosk development project.

I found the Certificate program and was admitted at the last minute of the enrollment for Spring 2005.http://www.jomc.unc.edu/


Three things I knew
I wanted to develop the skills to write for the Web so I could be like those Web journalists.

The on-line environment provided the perfect method for my busy schedule.

I had a great deal to learn.


Time and again, my work as a reporter gobbled up time needed for my class work. (

http://www.shebystar.com)

At the same time, using principals from an extensive readership study conducted by Northwestern University, my newspaper is undergoing a re-design. (http://www.readership.org.)

As I struggled to gain insight into the principals of writing for the Web, I realized that my newspaper planned to implement many of the same concepts, but without realizing the theories behind them.

Terms that gave me new insight and created confusion:
Semiotics
Cookies
Portals
Intranets
Usability

How it changed my writing

The audience consumes my thought process. Once an afterthought, I now spend most of my time analyzing how the reader or user will respond to each word.

Although I can hardly say that I have a working knowledge of semiotics, I now know to take into account everything from word cues to icons, looking for what the user or reader my perceive the meaning to be.

I look for commonalities in expectations of users, readers and viewers. How are they alike? What characteristics do they share in their behavior patters? What are their differences? How should I use both to improve my work?

I am still working toward Ernest Hemingway’s crisp use of imagery and economy of style. I believe this course alone helped me see how important that may be in writing for this cyber world.

My development of my friend’s Web site would be entirely different today and I would never assume that because I could spell usability that I would have any understanding of how to deploy its concepts.

There is so much more that I need to learn.


This course

I appreciate the insightfulness and depth. Over the weeks of lessons and readings, I came to understand how involved writing for the Web really could be.

The course workbook proved invaluable, but my own schedule prevented me from meeting deadlines. That is tough, because I am accustomed to working ahead. I read everything, but felt that I got lost in some of the theory and with my schedule could not always follow through with dialogue, as I would have liked.

Brian kept the avenues of communication open at all times and was very accessible. It was I who could not keep the communication flowing.

I never anticipated such an unusually demanding work schedule.

Assignment 11: Engaging through blogging

Blogs reach out

The Star, the venerable daily news institution in Cleveland County, N.C, faces an eroding subscriber base, competition from television news outlets that include a small, local cable news channel. The Star also faces a serious credibility issue among its core readership. Only a portion of this problem lies with accurate reporting. In fact, all employees live in the community and are dedicated to accurate, useable information. Corrections are made immediately and often researched to ensure that the process that led to the mistake has been corrected.

A second source for the loss of community trust lies with the high turnover rate for reporters. Most stay only a year, and then move to a larger market. This creates a lack of context in the reporting of stories and a huge learning curve for the new reporters who replace them. Sources and community leaders find themselves in the unenviable task of educating reporters.

Yet, even these two areas are not the major source for the erosion of credibility. That lies in the stark contrast between the Libertarian editorial philosophy of the paper and the Southern conservative attitudes of the community.

This last reason pierces every aspect of the paper’s reputation in the community. City and county leaders are suspicious of reporters’ motives that may just want a light feature. Readers question facts in stories – asking where the information originated and sources often say they don’t want to talk for fear of an editorial that might be against them.

Recently, The Star created blogs for staff members as a way to reach out to readers. This is the first step in introducing the people behind the news to the community in a unique way. Staff bloggers only guidance in creating content was to make it tasteful and true to The Star’s community mission.

The reporter who covers the city of Shelby opened her blog up to the public to address a series of issues in the city.

One photographer is running an “on line photography class blog”, answering questions for readers and providing tips for better pictures


Controlled interaction
This is one effective way that newspapers can use bloggers. The Bakersfield Californian offers a method that has evolved over time from a Web site to a tabloid print version. ( http://www.bakersfield.com/blogs/) The paper has come full circle in a fresh approach.

The Bakersfield Californian interactive site offers the best of both worlds – reader engagement and the controls of traditional journalism.
Journalists and strict standards that guide content run the Bakersfield Californian site.

This direction of journalism to include the reader as a participant in the process of gathering news is amplified by the increasing number of news blogs, Newspapers encourage and celebrate them; they devote Web resources and staff to manage them.

At both the 2004 Republican and Democratic Conventions, Bloggers set up shop to feed the 24-hour news dragon. They were given press credentials and allowed access equal and in come cases beyond that of legitimate news media.
Democratic convention blog:http://blog01.kintera.com/dnccblog/
Republican National convention site: http://www.2004nycgop.org/index.shtml

Although the networks and political candidates clearly identified these as “bloggers,” did the public know or care about the distinction?

After all, they had credentials, access and now the endorsement of credible politicians and news organizations.

These bloggers have broken major stories and affected the course of news coverage.

Definition of news diluted
It reverts to the ancient axiom. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, is there a sound?

In the American media, the trial of a multi millionaire, troubled entertainer eclipses the genocide in Darfur.

The romantic lives of Hollywood personalities take center stage in magazines and many Web sites, while a growing health care cost crisis is virtually ignored.

These decisions to place entertainment stories and celebrities above real, human crises that affect possibly millions of people begs the conclusion that the definition of news has evolved into something far less serious – something that just about anyone with a curiosity can accomplish. Just like the tree that falls in silence, so does a story that viewers never see or hear.

Therefore, if the information is seen or heard, then it automatically takes on new weight and importance to an audience. It is news by the current standards. But will it stand the test applied to traditional journalism?

Does it have impact and longevity?
What do experienced journalists with the training and experience say news is?

Doug Mayes, the retired journalist of WBTV and WSOC-TV, and a member of the N.C. Broadcast Hall of Fame, answered the question with the following statement.

“News is an aberration. It is the opposite of normal. One million
people traveling safely to work each day is not news, but one person wrecking
becomes news, which is what the editor on the desk that day says news is.”

So perhaps the bloggers who proliferate the Web and seep into print coverage are the next iteration of the definition. They provide the access to the aberrations, the peek into the forest, where they often are the first to hear the trees fall.

Assignment –Week 12 Public Relations, Publicity and Press Releases

Introduction

As a novice writer of travel pieces for my newspaper, I rely upon several travel industry Web sites to augment information for my monthly columns.
While not designed specifically for journalists, each of these offers access to primarily unbiased information. They provide statistics on types of travel, who travels and specifics about trends.

Travel Industry Association of America
http://www.tia.org

Designed to serve members of its international association, TIA provides objective, detailed research on all facets of the travel industry. To accomplish this goal, it partners with leading universities that offer majors in the hospitality field to provide detailed research data to support the analysis,

The publics served by the TIA include:
Travel agents
Hospitality associations
Tour operators
Transportation companies
Airlines
Cruise lines
Bus companies
Destinations
Convention and business travel

They are identified through the introductory paragraph on the site, which describes the purpose of the organization as ”representing and speaking for all concerns” of the travel industry professional.

Under the tile, “Member Services” TIA identifies each of the groups it serves with hyperlinks to more specific information for each concern.

The tiles on the home page indicate the ways in which these publics are served.

Publications
A monthly newsletter available for subscribers to download
An annual travel report
Research
Industry specific topics for purchase by members
Education
Seminars both on line and on location
Requests for additional information for members only
Media & press
News releases that include research results
Quick facts for the travel industry
Links to each of the member sites
Introductions and photos of each of the members of the media staff
Phone and e-mail contact information to which someone responds quickly

The site practically demands repeat traffic through its daily updates of travel information, promotion of upcoming research topics, surveys of members that lead to new research, Additionally, the site offers seminars on line that appeal to members (and even some reporters.)

National Tour Association
http://www.ntaonline.com

This subscriber site is designed specifically for tour companies and their vendors. It offers a wealth of information about the tour industry, but far less objective data as the Travel Industry Association.
The homepage describes the organization as connecting to “a vast business network that spans the globe.”
The National tour Association represents:
· 630 tour operator companies
· 2,225 tour suppliers
· 800 destination-marketing organizations

The tiles on the homepage offer links to each of the publics and a list of hyperlinks down the left panel allow the user to jump specific associations for each one. For example:

Tour operator companies
Research available for purchase to subscribers
Seminars both on line and custom designed on site
Newsletters
On line news alerts

Tour suppliers
Research available for purchase to subscribers
Seminars both on line and custom designed on site
Newsletters
On line news alerts

Government research
Federal Trade Commission
National Park Service

Press releases
List of tour association and its members in the news
Hyperlink to media relations representative with full contact information. The media relations phone number is an answering system that returns calls within 24 hours.

The site is a one-stop source for everything regarding the tour provider, supplier or destination. With its links to government research and other associations, members can find all the data or links to other sources needed.

International Travel, Air Highways
http://www.airhighways.com

This is an on-line magazine that serves the international travel industry through a comprehensive list of all the forms of travel, with current articles and links to their Web sites.

The publics served by Air Highways include an exhaustive list of every form of travel operator, provider and travel type. Primarily, I use this site to access information about adventure travel. There is a site for adventure travel, but it can be accessed from the Air Highways site, where I find additional resources for other travel stories.

This site is organized more like a news site, with a center page graphic or picture that draws the user to a feature story from the current issue.

The tiles across the top include all forms of travel divided into major categories:
Leisure travel
Business travel
Adventure Travel
Group travel

Travel methods are listed as hyperlinks down the left panel. These include:
Airlines
Trains
Highways
Cruise lines
Hiking

There is no media contact information and to use any of the information on the site, a reporter must search to find contact information and submit an e-mail requesting permission. This is cumbersome, time consuming and not always successful. I find the site useful for its links to other travel associations and to read articles about current trends that keep me better informed as I research new topics to report.

Analysis

Of the three sites, I find the Travel Industry site the most true to its image in that it sets out to be a one-stop information source for the travel industry and a site for others outside the industry to reference.
Through its simple design it easily allows the user to navigate through its rich information hyperlinks. It never looks or functions like sales site, but like an academic, research site. Although the publications, educational and articles are available for purchase, this is done in the same vein as articles for purchase on academic sites.

The National Tour Association navigates easily and has readily available “jumps” back to the home page. The rich layers of information seem to never end and the information found on one page contains almost too many hyperlinks. Words are hyper linked to sites outside the national tour association and its affiliates. This is a barricade to access because it forces the user to jump back and forth between pieces of information.

The Air highways site is highly useable, filled with short articles surrounded by white space, much like a printed magazine. Its downfall is the lengthy list of hyperlinks down the left panel, making it difficult to stay on task. These hyperlinks jump to each of the affiliate associations’ Web sites, diverting attention from the main page.

None of the sites appears retail in nature at all. Nor are they commercial or directed at the general public. All work to provide objective information that is useful to the groups they serve.

Welcome Back!

Hi Everyone:
Last week, I returned from a lengthy trial coverage in an adjacent county. The victim once lived in Cleveland County and the incident occurred in Cleveland. They moved the trial because of pre-trial publicity.

Anyway, I was driving back and forth every day (1 hour each way), then filing my stories, then driving home (45 minutes).

After my return, I worked extra every night. There went the time to post my classwork.

Then on Friday night, I took my 11-year-old daughter to the pediatriac night clinic. She was diagnosed with a strep throat. Sunday, we were back at the urgent care clinic, where an upper respiratory infection and possible mononucleosis was added to the list.

Since I was able to spend the rest of Sunday at home, I was able to catch up.
I hope you all understand.
Best,
Amelia

Week 10: Legal Issues, the Web and Journalism

When the Freedom of Information Act Becomes a Corporate Marauder’s Tool

Who has the right to corporate information? Because individuals can use the Freedom of Information Act to acquire sensitive corporate information from a federal agency, should that give those who acquire such information the right to disseminate it any way they choose?

Those are the central questions raised in a February 2005 case filed by the Boeing Corporation against the United States Department of Justice.

Background
In 1997, the Air Force awarded a contract for the nation’s global positioning satellite system to Boeing. Over the next six years, the firm won bids to upgrade and expand the system. The latest, worth $600 million, came in 2003.

Soon after the 2003 contract was awarded, a pair of “corporate pirates” filed a Freedom of Information Act requests with the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles. The firms that made the request, FOIA Group and Federal Sources, sell information to their clients.

Following FOIA guidelines, the Air Force notified Boeing of the FOIA request and the firm took legal action to block Air Force compliance.

The U.S. Justice Department defends its right to release even sensitive information to companies such as FOIA Group and Federal Sources on the grounds it levels the playing field and may eventually give the government better prices.

Boeing’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, effectively claims releasing all the details of its contract gives competitors an unfair advantage.

A New Kind of Business
FOIA Group and Federal Sources represent a growing enterprise that uses the Freedom of Information Act to get complete contract information from the federal government agencies for purposes of helping competing firms.

In fact, an official of Federal Sources Inc. said it uses the FOIA to obtain detailed information that it downloads to a Web-based database, which is available to subscribers.

According to Jeff Stachewicz of the FOIA Group, his firm makes 10,000 FOIA requests each year. He claims there are no court actions that prevent his firm from continuing the practice.
According a March 17, 2005 article in the Legal Times, in this type of business has evolved over the last two decades, targeting firms such as MCI, WorldCom, Inc., General Electric and McDonnell Douglas. According to the article, all the firms have sued to prevent the release of what they consider “proprietary” information that they say could harm their businesses.

These legal blockades are described as “reverse FOIA actions.” According to a Washington, D.C. attorney who has successfully prevented the release of information about MCI said the information helps competitors target a company’s vulnerabilities.

Access Denied
While the Justice Department fights to allow FOIA access to corporate information contained in contracts, the same department has been working to restrict access to thousands of documents requested under the FOIA. According to an article by Paul K. McMasters, published for the wire services on March 14, 2005, the trend is for the government to restrict access under the guise of homeland security, safety, or privacy.

McMasters said government Web sites, publications, and even federal CD-ROMS are no longer available to the public. The Homeland Security Act further restricted the availability of thousands of documents the government describes as “sensitive but unclassified”.

Journalists and the public, already saddled with challenges in getting access to information, face an even greater series of obstacles with no clearly defined legal decision in the favor of the public’s right to know.

Observations
It will take years of legal challenges to resolve the contradictions in the Justice Department’s response to the public’s right to know. Following the gains in restraining and reclassification of thousands of documents once available to the public merely for the asking, the current administration is unlikely to revert to the “pre-nine-eleven” status.

Further, the challenge for journalists will be to remain vigilant while trying to meet deadlines, work under the constraints of shrinking resources and tight budgets.

Additionally, journalists will be challenged to look for other resources to access information. One growing avenue would be the hundreds of “Web loggers” who create sites based upon their personal interests. Many run their own “news sites” disseminating information often before legitimate journalism sites can even confirm it.

Bloggers have broken major stories. They’ve affected change and they face lawsuits. Take the case brewing against the Harvard student who faces a legal challenge from Apple Computer over confidential sources.
Web loggers may, then, provide excellent anecdotal information for legitimate journalists, who have the option to verify, and then potentially use it.

The final challenge will be for journalists to take the time to sift through the thousands of potential Web sites and locate the few that provide predominantly credible information that could potentially lead to “freeing information.” This would be a way to circumvent the blockades surrounding the Freedom of Information Act.

Sources

Schoenberg, Tom: “Jockeying for Position”, Legal Times, p. 9. Vol. 46, No. 68. March 17, 2005.

McMasters, Paul K., “An Encroaching Shadow of Secrecy”, http://:www.freedomforum.org, Opinion, P. 1. March 14, 2005

Week 9: Bibliography

Introduction
As newspapers work to meet the challenges of attracting readers, editors and designers are faced with making bold decisions that could bring newspaper usability design closer to that of the Web and television. The central questions are what common behavioral characteristics do viewers, readers and users share that transcend media and how can those commonalities affect newspaper design?

Bibliography

McCauley, Todd and Nesbitt, Mary, “Consumer Readership Behavior Study,” in
Readership Study. (Northwestern University Kellogg Institute of Media, Feb.2004) Accessed 27 Feb. 2005 .

This article and related articles on the site will offer detailed statistical information on reader behavior patterns, reader demographics, reader initiatives and initiatives based on the research that will drive increases in readership.


Nielsen, Jakob, “Authentic Behavior in User Testing,” in Authentic User Testing
(Nielsen Norman Group, 14 Feb. 2005)
Accessed 4 March 2005 .

This article will help develop a benchmark for user behaviors in all media.


Nielsen, Jakob, “Usability of Teen Web sites” in Alertbox Newsletter
(Nielsen Norman Group, 31 Jan. 2005)
Accessed 4 March 2005 < http://usenet.com/alertbox>.

Newspapers are working to attract a youth audience. However, this study uncovered important differences in how that audiences accesses information on the Internet. This applies to newspapers that are developing user interface designs similar to those of the Web to attract the younger audience.

Baig, Edward C. “Study Shows Some Teens Not as Web-Savvy as Parents.”
USA Today. 30 Jan. 2005. Accessed 4 March 2005 .>

This article summarizes the Nielsen study and offers practical applications for the research. It also provides additional research data from other sources.



Nielsen, Jakob, “Acting on User Research” in Alertbox Newsletter
(Nielsen Norman Group, 8 Nov. 2004)
Accessed 7 March 2005 < http://usenet.com/alertbox>.

This study will help further the practical applications of user behavior in all media and solidify the answer to the original question that begs to know whether behavior characteristics transcend media and require common user interfaces to succeed.

Nielsen, Jakob, “Usability 101” in Alertbox Newsletter
(Nielsen Norman Group, 8 Nov. 2004)
Accessed 7 March 2005 < http://usenet.com/alertbox>.

This article offers a basic tutorial on the concepts and theories on which usability studies and designs are based.

Dumlao, Rebecca. “Studies in Media.” Information Literacy Education 3.1 (University of Toronto Press, Article 3). (Feb. 2003). Accessed. 4 March 2004 <http://www.utpjournals.com?jour.html?/p=simile/issue9/dumlaofulltext.html>.

This article evaluates the educational levels of Web users and makes correlations to the effectiveness of usability interface design semiotics.

Marcus, Aaron. “ROI for Usability UI Design.” Usability Experience Magazine. (Winter, 2002). Accessed 10 March 2005. http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/usability_in_ the_real_world/oi_of usability.htm.

This article addresses the economics of usability and user design, which is all-important to the business of newspapers, television and commercial Web sites.

Hurst, Mark. “This is Broken.” (March, 2005). Accessed 10 March 2005. <http://www.goodexperience.com/this_is_broken/html.>

This article addresses the issue of failed user interfaces from the consumer standpoint. The site author describes the goal to make business more aware of their customer experience and how to fix it.

Tidwell, Jenifer. “Common Ground: A Pattern Language for Human computer Interface Design.” ( 17 May 1999) Accessed 11 March 2005.

This study examines whether a carefully defined set of design rules will achieve a goal through excellent use of patterns, therefore making the user interface a seamless part of the navigation. For my research, this will help again transcend the media applications.

Travel post: Repurposing Information for the Web

The original travel article appeared in the New York Times, March 31, 2002. The link is below

http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/travel/article-page.html


By BARRY UNSWORTH Published: March 31, 2002

Stones Tell Story of Volterra

Volterra’s stark landscape stands in stark contrast to the sweeping warm colors of central Tuscancy. The village sets isolated on a high plateau of thin clay, surrounded by volcanic hills. Dark stone and decaying buildings close out the sky and hide Volterra’s past glory as one of the most prosperous and powerful of the Etruscan cities in the half-millennium before the birth of Christ.


Volterra: Tour the Town and its stone art work (Note this would be a hyperlink to photos and information about locations mentioned in the article. There would also be a photo, as I have in my orginal edited version.)

· Piazza dei Priori

· Pretorian Palace

· Fresco
1. Annunciation by Jacopo di Cione and Nicolò di Pietro Gerini
2. Wedding at Cana by Donato Mascagni

· Guarnacci Museum.- home to 600+ urns
· 12th Century Cathederal
· Etruscan Gate


French artist Camille Corot painted many landscapes on location, recording a particular place and time instead of an idealized, classicized scene as many previous landscape artists had done. Volterra, an example of this type of work, was painted in 1834. It is in the Louvre museum in Paris, France.
Art Resource, NY/Scala
Prosperity and Power

Insert map of Volterra here
This would be an interactive map of Volterra and the surrounding area. By clicking on the city landmarks, users can link to information on historic events.


Power & Prosperity (goes with map)

Volterra was undone by its own prosperity. As Florence's power grew, its rulers cast covetous eyes on the alabaster mines. Pretexts were found. After the collapse of Belforti rule, Florence took control of the town, establishing governors whose duties were largely devoted to levying dues and extracting taxes. A little over a century later, in 1472, during the rue of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the people of Volterra rebelled, having grown tired of the Florentine policy of keeping alabaster production down and prices up and pocketing all the proceeds -- a story with a modern ring to it.

Lorenzo hired Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, soldier, scholar and art patron, the complete renaissance prince, to put down the revolt. This he did with the atrocious brutality that only the complete renaissance prince was capable of. Lorenzo made no attempt to check the carnage, but when he lay on his deathbed it was one of the trinity of crimes that he confessed to Savonarola, himself only some five years away from death at the stake for heresy.

The rising power of Rome recognized a s joyous spirit of the Etruscans and of course disapproved of it deeply. It was shocking that the Etruscans included women at their banqueting tables, that they treated their slaves so well that no one could tell the difference between slave and free man. Such a loose-living people deserved to be crushed and have its territories occupied, which is exactly what the Romans proceeded to do, naturally taking over the valuable alabaster mines in the process.

Restaurants offer rich, satisfying fare
Names and locations with review
Icons of menus with links to restaurant Web sites.
The Etruria, Piazza dei Priori 6, (39-0588) 86064.

Getting there:
SYMBOL OF CAR /AIRPLANE
Then, this would be a map of the major roads into the city with hyperlinks to getting directions and car rental informationFrom arte povera to roast wild boar
We drove to Volterra from our home near Lake Trasimeno, bypassing
This would have directions and information.

WHERE TO STAY
ICON FOR HOTEL AND INFORMATION WITH HYPERLINKS TO WEB SITES

Our Experience
We stayed at the Hotel San Lino, Via San Lino 26, (39-0588) 85250, fax (39-0588) 80620, www.hotelsanlino.com, a 15th-century convent renovated in arte povera style, with the first-floor bedrooms created from the nuns' sleeping quarters. All rooms have minibars, direct telephone lines and hair dryers, and the second floor is air-conditioned. Doubles in high season (with breakfast) are $69 on the first floor, $85 on the second. Prices are calculated at 1.16 euros to $1.

Week 7-Evaluating Sites-Learning Styles

Monkey see; monkey say; monkey do.

That's me. If you tell me, I remember, If you show and tell me, I can do it. I am glad that this learning styles test combined several types of learning styles with situations such as social learners or solitary learners.

The test results were visual, audio, social learning for me. And that fits. I work best in a noisy room with exchange from others and the ability to see demonstrations.

My greatest challenge in taking this test was getting the results page to appear on-line. It never did. I took the test on my home computer, then waited, waited and waited. Nothing.

So, believing the problem was the computer, I took the test at work with the same results. Finally,I used a computer in the library and still was unable to get the results. Luckily, a kindly librarian found the test in paper format and I took it again.

When technology fails, I learned one thing. It's good to know how to find source material.

Week 7 - Setting Your Sites: Knowing Your Audience

Evaluation of a Web site

http://www.corante.com

Overview

The site is designed for what it calls “more than casual readers” of business and technology information. Therefore, information on the site assumes a level of sophistication regarding the ability of the users to navigate the site.

Corante offers industry articles, research and blogs for a variety of technology fields, including communications and biotechnology.

The site provides a breadth and depth of information sources that include recognized industry leaders. One note of interest – the inspiration for the name for the magazine and the Web site is explained at the bottom of the home page. This helps the un-initiated understand the impetus for the site itself.

Design

The site is planed for a global audience and follows the complex hierarchy for an educated audience, with its non-linear, hyper-linked pages.

Corante’s writers describe the audience as 250,000 who are “on the cutting edge, early adopters and creators of technologies, building an running these (business) sectors.”

The strategy for the design takes into account the international aspects of the site users. Colors offer muted reds, almost Burgundies for headlines. Text is san serif black in a sea of white. Sub-headings are bold. Light blue (dare they be called Carolina Blue) dialogue boxes draw the user’s attention to the left panel.

Taking advantage of Strauss’ philosophy on semiotics, the navigational language is simple, offering the user in any culture a clear understanding of what each heading means.

However, there are a few exceptions to that idea. In the biotechnology section, users will find a list of related articles at the bottom of the panel. The heading reads, “Also take a shufti at…”. How many users know what that means?

Navigation

The content flow, based upon Horton-Lynch’s non-liner navigational design, is different for every page and every link to specific articles.
The home page appears as an entertainment news site, with sub headlines for sections such as “Weblog”, “Industry News”, and “Insider News”. Each one of those sections offers what appears to be the ‘top story” of the day. One click links the user to any of those articles.

On the home page, the first scan of the page from left to right takes the user to graphics and photographs. The next scan draws the eye down the left panel, which is filled with blurbs about other articles on the site.

After that, the eye randomly wanders from one article to the next, possibly exploring other pages. Only a careful examination of the home page and ignoring the urge to click exposes the user to the small drop down boxes along the top strip of the page. On the home page, there are two of these – industry insiders and weblogs.

Clicking on these opens pages for each category or contributor, in the case of the Weblogs.

Across the top left, in small underlined text, the user finally sees three extremely important heading, the most important being “about us.”

By clicking this one, the user unlocks the door to the real work of Corante – selling its considerable information and research services.

In the spider web navigation of the site, a user could jump from page to page without finding that little nougat.

This informs another point of the navigation – a difficulty of moving backwards from an article to the page from which it was linked. That proved a difficulty when reading an article and going back to the Web page.

Usability Recommendations

While the designers of this site assumed a certain level of sophistication in the audience, they could increase the success of finding information and reduce the time it takes with a few navigational improvements to the site.

Certain information, certain links bear repeating on every page.
A table of contents on each page would be helpful. This would include the following:

• Home
• About Us
• Our Services
• Sections –
  Web Blogs
  Industry News
  Insider News
• Our Contributors
• Site Map
• How to Contact Us

The next suggestion would be to redesign the first page to include the table of contents, thus eliminating the tiny, virtually ignored drop down boxes that appear in the upper right corner of the page.


The next suggestion would be to create a “Must Reads” and “Up to the Minute” section for each topic. This would help the user find the information quickly and add to the credibility of the site.

Finally, the section that contains biographies of contributors has a good beginning by running the biography of the main article contributor down the left panel with the article. It would help to create a list of contributors by topics and make that searchable.

Summary

Overall this is a very extensive Web site. It could be improved with design and navigational techniques that take the behavior and goals of the users into more detail.

The ART Style Guide for Research Topic --draft

Introduction to ART Style Guide

The purpose of this guide is to set up a consistent method for displaying, conveying and communicating information for the research paper created by Amelia Townsend for the course, “Writing for Digital Media”. While this guide is anchored in the Associated Press Stylebook, it also covers the general aesthetics of the pages, navigation, and consistency for terminology used in the production of print journalism. This goal of this guide is to make the information easily available to the user of the Web site and to the reader of the term paper.

Scope

Without repeating the style information found in the Associated Press Stylebook, the ART Style Guide addresses the nuances of newspaper “jargon” which is not covered in the AP stylebook. The ART guide also proposes a specific terminology to differentiate between Web site users and newspaper readers. Additionally, the guide will specify the aesthetics of the Web pages. These will be designed to make the site navigation apparent; thereby making the site one users will want to “visit.”
It will also “brand” the site with consistent typography and treatment of photos, graphics and dialogue boxes.

Web site navigation

1. All bold words will be hyperlinks. These include headlines, sub-headlines and left panel navigation prompts.
2. All body copy will be no longer than 10 lines. After that, copy will be sub-divided by smaller headlines, graphics, photos, bullets or numbers.
3. Copy will be divided and offset by graphics, photos, lists, charts or hyperlinks.
4. All graphics will contain a headline that explains the purpose of the object.
5. In all information boxes, bullets or numbers will set off major points.
6. There will be no more than four items listed in an information box.
7. All photos will be identified with smaller captions and set off from copy by simple, lines.
8. All citations will appear as endnotes with hyperlinks to the source material.

Audience

1. Readers always refers to people who are getting information from a newspaper.
2. Users always refers to people who are getting information from a Web site.
3. Viewer always refers to people who are getting information from television.

Industry terminology

Newspaper “jargon” will be enclosed in quotes. The terminology will always be defined in the first reference. It is not capitalized unless it appears as the first word in a sentence. The terminology is followed by appropriate punctuation.

Example:
When creating a “refer”, which is a graphic or photo combined with a written promotion for another article, use bold colors.

“Rails” of pages, which are columns that run vertically down either edge, attract readers to other articles inside the paper.

Common newspaper terminology

“breakout boxes”: information displayed in an informational graphic box, rather than in paragraph format.

“quote outs”: the exact words spoken by an individual for a newspaper article, which are written in large, bold font and set off from the rest of the story by borders, lines or white space.

“refer”: promotional information that combines graphics, photographs and adverting style copy in an effort to prompt the reader to read an article in another section or future edition of a newspaper.

“rails”: vertical, single columns running down either left or right of a page.

“centerpiece”: the article on the center front of the page of a newspaper.

Section styles

Do not capitalize the section headings for either a newspaper or Web site, unless they are proper names. They need not be set off in quotation marks or any other means, unless part of a proper name.

Example:
The obituary section of the New York Times consistently is placed on page 5B.
The resource page on the Web site allows the user to hyperlink to original source material.

Page style guide

1. Headlines will appear in Arial Bold 16 point black font.
2. Sub-headlines will appear in Arial Bold, 13 point, black font.
3. Body text will appear in Lucinda Sans, 12 point, black font, unless it appears as a hyperlink.
4. Hyperlink body text will appear in blue.
5. Navigation bars, “prompt” boxes” and headines will appear in blue underlines.
6. The background of each page will be white. The borders will be blue with yellow.