Eshet & Geri Cnie 2008

Print or digital? Critical reading in the information era

Yoram Eshet and Nitza Geri

Critical thinking in the information era: A survival skill for the information consumer

The manipulative nature of news headlines

International Business Times, May, 19th, 2007

According to Dor (2001), most information in news resources is manipulative or biased.

Manipulative Headlines

The Onion: Dedicated to falcification & deception www.onion.com

The problem: Are we able to consume information critically?

Chalked to death

Tel Aviv:

Air pollution 4 times

than allowed

Tel Aviv: Air pollution 3 times then recommended

News representation taxonomy (Dor, 2001)

• “Objective” representation• Naïve bias• Wicked bias

And why is it so important?“In the book 1984, humans are indoctrinated against their

will whereas in the modern era, they are being indoctrinated in a free will"

Slavoj Žižek (2002) Welcome to the Desert of the Real

People, but especially youth are easily manipulated

(Eshet & Hamburger, 2004)

Bombarded by information

• A constant increase in the exposure to digital information• Forecast: By 2020, 70% of information will be digital

(Romano, 2000).• Ambiguous findings concerning critical reading in a

digital format

Past and future use of print vs. digital information (after Romano, 2000)

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2030

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6070

80

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1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Year

%

Digital

Print

Print versus digital:What do we know?

• Reading: Slower in a digital text• Cognitive load: Higher in a digital text• Ownership: Lower in a digital text• Navigation: Disorientation problems in a digital text• General preferences: Short text : Digital. Long text: Print

The research: Is there a difference in critical reading between print

and digital format?Participants• 40 high school students (20 males & 20 females)• 40 college students (20 males & 20 females)Print group• 20 high school students (10 males & 10 females)• 20 college students (10 males & 10 females)

Digital group• 20 high school students (10 males & 10 females)• 20 college students (10 males & 10 females)Tasks• Critical analysis of 5 news items (sport, politics, science, art, economy)• Each item appears in both print and digital formats.• Identify all manipulations made in news items• Write a critical reportGrading• Close similarity between the referees’ grades and the grades given by the authors

(Pearson Correlation range 0.809 to 0.997, all significant at the 0.01 level, two-tailed) suggests a high coherence of the evaluation criteria utilized in this research.

Total (n=80)

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20

40

60

80

100

Politics Science Economy Sport Art

Print

Digital

Findings: Print vs. digital Total sample

No significant influence of format for total participants group

Total Females (n=40)

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Politics Science Economy Sport Art

Print

Digital

Total Males (n=40)

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

Politics Science Economy Sport Art

Print

Digital

Print vs. Digital: Gender influence

No significant influence of format in a gender level

Print vs. digital: Age influenceTotal High School (n=40)

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20

40

60

80

100

Politics Science Economy Sport Art

Print

Digital

Total College (n=40)

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80

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Politics Science Economy Sport Art

Print

Digital

High school: More critical in a digital format

College: More critical in a print format

High school vs. college(regardless of format)

Total (n=80)

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20

40

60

80

100

Politics Science Economy Sport Art

High School

college

Significant differences in critical reading

Males vs. females(regardless of format)

Total (n=80)

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20

40

60

80

100

Politics Science Economy Sport Art

Males

Females

Significant differences in critical reading

The medium and the message (M. McLuhan):

Summary of major findings

Significant influence of age on performance:• High school students performed better in digital compared to print

formats.• College students performed better in print compared to digital

formats.

Significant differences in sub-groups (e.g. PH, PC, DH, DC)

Significant differences regardless of format:• Age• Gender

Discussion: 3 perspectives of print vs. digital

• The usability perspective

• The cognitive perspective

• The information economics perspective

The usability perspective

The usability principle: Users perform better in familiar and friendly environments

The generation gap: Youth are more used to digital & adults to print platforms

The cognitive perspective

Youth perform better than adults in non-linear, branching hypertext environments

Eshet & Hamburger (2004)

The information economics perspective

• The performance of users reflects the perceived value they assign to of information.

• Format affects the information’s perceived value and user performance.

We hope this talk has inspired you with some new ideas

THANKS