Monitoring online user behaviour.The case of the Newstracker
Martijn KleppeIrene Costera Meijer
DHBenelux 2015, AntwerpMonday 8 June 2015
[email protected] www.martijnkleppe.nlwww.news-use.com
@martijnkleppe
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
How do users consume news?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Current tools
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Current tools
• Vinex:List of most visited websites+ From user perspective- (Too?) Generic
• Google Analytics:Title only+ Detailed- From website perspective
Current tools
Our Research Questions
• Which (type of) websites are visited?• When are they visited?• Which articles are visited?• Do users visit other websites in the morning
compared to evenings?• How are visits to news websites embedded in visits
to other websites (checking cycle)?• What role do form and content play?• Why do people visit websites?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Our set-upCreated a tool to monitor online behavior on
desktops & PCs Unfortunately, not (yet) tracking of mobile & tablets
50 students Young Use laptops a lot Tech savvy
14 Days of tracking
Tracking + interviews, survey & diaryThe New News Consumer
www.news-use.com
All websites
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Only 4.000 websites + categories
+ Scrape textual &
visual content
Analysis File
Our set-up
Interview+ Diary
Proxy
Preliminary results – When?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
00:00 - 06:00 - Nacht 06:00 - 09:00 - Ochtend-Opstaan
09:00 - 12:00 - Ochtend
12:00 - 13:00 - Lunch 13:00 - 17:00 - Middag
17:00 - 19:00 - Vooravond
19:00 - 00:00 - Avond0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Nieuws24%
Shopping17%
Educatie12%
Zoekmachine8%
Naslagwerk7%
Video muziek radio
5%
Overig27%
Preliminary results – What?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
00:00 - 06:00 - Nacht
06:00 - 09:00 - Ochtend-Opstaan
09:00 - 12:00 - Ochtend
12:00 - 13:00 - Lunch
13:00 - 17:00 - Middag
17:00 - 19:00 - Vooravond
19:00 - 00:00 - Avond
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Nieuws Shopping Educatie ZoekmachineNaslagwerk Video muziek radio Rest
Preliminary results – When What?
Work in progress – Checking cycle
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
“(…) news has become integrated with all sorts of activities but
also with other websites and genres. A distinctive user pattern
in this respect is what we have called a “checking cycle,” which
involves checking the latest in terms of news, e-mail, Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Tinder, Grindr, and so on, all in one quick
session. The aim is to continuously stay on top of all that
happens in your personal life and the world at large.”
Costera Meijer & Groot Kormelink (2014)
Work in progress – Checking cycleHow are visits to news websites embedded in visits to other websites (checking cycle)?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Datum Tijd User URL26-4-2015 15:59:33 user28 http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/6651754/3da84f40/bolle_vs_stoere_boy.html26-4-2015 16:35:01 user28 http://vi.nl/26-4-2015 16:35:01 user28 http://www.vi.nl/26-4-2015 16:35:19 user28 http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/feyenoord-sleept-met-tien-man-punt-uit-vuur-in-groningen.htm26-4-2015 16:41:43 user28 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/3247392926-4-2015 16:41:44 user28 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32473929
26-4-2015 16:52:59 user28 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/3247056926-4-2015 16:53:02 user28 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/3247056926-4-2015 16:53:05 user28 http://www.vi.nl/home.htm26-4-2015 16:54:02 user28 http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/promes-maakt-opnieuw-het-verschil-voor-spartak.htm26-4-2015 17:00:20 user28 http://www.soccernews.nl/news/313971/Kramer_wil_PSV-aanvallers_verslaan:_Ik_sta_er_dichtbij
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Work in progress – Checking cycle
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Datum Tijd User URL26-4-2015 15:59:33 user28 http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/6651754/3da84f40/bolle_vs_stoere_boy.html26-4-2015 16:35:01 user28 http://vi.nl/26-4-2015 16:35:01 user28 http://www.vi.nl/26-4-2015 16:35:19 user28 http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/feyenoord-sleept-met-tien-man-punt-uit-vuur-in-groningen.htm26-4-2015 16:41:43 user28 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/3247392926-4-2015 16:41:44 user28 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32473929
26-4-2015 16:52:59 user28 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/3247056926-4-2015 16:53:02 user28 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/3247056926-4-2015 16:53:05 user28 http://www.vi.nl/home.htm26-4-2015 16:54:02 user28 http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/promes-maakt-opnieuw-het-verschil-voor-spartak.htm26-4-2015 17:00:20 user28 http://www.soccernews.nl/news/313971/Kramer_wil_PSV-aanvallers_verslaan:_Ik_sta_er_dichtbij
26-4-2015 17:01:51 user28 http://www.google.nl/26-4-2015 17:02:01 user28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_Kramer26-4-2015 17:02:15 user28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_van_Duinen26-4-2015 17:02:23 user28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gervane_Kastaneer
Work in progress – Checking cycleHow are visits to news websites embedded in visits to other websites (checking cycle)?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Work in progress – Checking cycle
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
User28 has a checking round
We used this in the interviewsWhy these websites?How does this relate to behaviour on mobile & tablet?
Preliminary result:• Need for news about hobbys• News about hobbys is best consumed on laptops &
desktops (larger screen, easy switching)• Mobile news consumption is quick (& dirty)
Work in progress – Checking cycle
What’s next?
• Which (type of) websites are visited?• When are they visited?• Which articles are visited?• Do users visit other websites in the morning
compared to evenings?• How are visits to news websites embedded in visits
to other websites (checking cycle)?• What role do form and content play?• Why do people visit websites?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
What’s next?
• Which (type of) websites are visited?• When are they visited?• Which articles are visited?• Do users visit other websites in the morning
compared to evenings?• How are visits to news websites embedded in visits
to other websites (checking cycle)?• What role do form and content play?• Why do people visit websites?
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
What’s next?What role do form and content play?
26-4-2015 16:52:59 user28 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/3247056926-4-2015 16:53:02 user28 http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/3247056926-4-2015 16:53:05 user28 http://www.vi.nl/home.htm26-4-2015 16:54:02 user28 http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/promes-maakt-opnieuw-het-verschil-voor-spartak.htm26-4-2015 17:00:20 user28 http://www.soccernews.nl/news/313971/Kramer_wil_PSV-aanvallers_verslaan:_Ik_sta_er_dichtbij
News +Sport
Next step:
• Automated Content Analysis of text ontopic + style
• Visual Content Analysis
Pros & Cons
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
+ Loads of Data
+ Information for qualitative interviews
+ Insight into statistics from user perspective: Go beyond log file analysis
- Loads of data
- Qualitative research remains necessary
- Find respondents
- Infringement of privacy?
- How to scale up?
Acknowledgements
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Marco Otte Hildebrand Bijleveld Leonie Durlinger Stefan Heijdra
Irene Costera Meijer Marcel Broersma Tim Groot KormelinkChris Peters Joelle Swart
Acknowledgements
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Literature
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com
Atteveldt, W. van. (2008). Semantic Network Analysis: Techniques for Extracting, Representing, and Querying Media Content. BookSurge.Batista, P., & Silva, M. (2002). Mining Web Access Logs of an On-line Newspaper. Presented at the Proceedings of the Workshop on Recommendation and Personalization in eCommerce of the 2nd International Conferenceon Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web Based Systems, Malaga. Retrieved from http://xldb.di.fc.ul.pt/xldb/publications/rpec02.pdf Bhulai, S., Kampstra, P., Kooiman, L., Koole, G., & Kok, B. (2012). Trend visualization on Twitter: What’s hot and what’s not? (pp. 43–48). Presented at the IARIA, Barcelona.Costera Meijer, I., & Groot Kormelink, T. (2014). Checking, Sharing, Clicking and Linking. Digital Journalism, 0(0), 1–16. doi:10.1080/21670811.2014.937149 Findahl, O., Lagerstedt, C., & Aurelius, A. (2013). Triangulation as a way to validate and deepen the knowledge about user behavior. A comparison between questionnaires, diaries and traffic measurement. In G. Patriarche, H. Bilandzic, J. L. Jensen, & J. Juriši?, Audience Research Methodologies: Between innovation and consolidation (pp. 54–69). New York.Manovich, L. (2012). How to Follow Software Users? Retrieved from http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2012/04/new-article-lev-manovich-how-to-follow.html Menchen-Trevino, E., & Karr, C. (2012). Researching Real-World Web Use with Roxy: Collecting Observational Web Data with Informed Consent. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 9(3), 254–268. doi:10.1080/19331681.2012.664966Nederlandse Nieuwsmonitor. (2013). Seksmoord op horrorvakantie: de invloed van bezoekersgedrag op krantenwebsites op de nieuwsselectie van dagbladen en hun websites. Retrieved from http://www.nieuwsmonitor.net/d/244/Seksmoord_op_Horrorvakantie_pdf Boczkowski, P. J., Mitchelstein, E., & Walter, M. (2011). Convergence Across Divergence: Understanding the Gap in the Online News Choices of Journalists and Consumers in Western Europe and Latin America. Communication Research, 38(3), 376–396. doi:10.1177/0093650210384989Karlsson, M., & Clerwall, C. (2013). Negotiating Professional News Judgment and “Clicks.” Nordicom Review, 34(2), 65–76. doi:10.2478/nor-2013-0054Richardson, J. E. (2007). Analysing newspapers: an approach from critical discourse analysis. Basingstoke [England]; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Usher, N. (2013). Al Jazeera English Online. Understanding Web metrics and news production when a quantified audience is not a commodified audience. Digital Journalism, 1(3), 335–351. doi:10.1080/21670811.2013.801690Vicente-Marino, M. (2013). Audience research methods. Facing the challenges of transforming audiences. In G. Patriarche, H. Bilandzic, J. L. Jensen, & J. Juriši?, Audience Research Methodologies: Between innovation and consolidation (pp. 37–53). New York.
Questions?
Monitoring online user behaviour.The case of the Newstracker
Martijn KleppeIrene Costera Meijer
DHBenelux 2015, AntwerpMonday 8 June 2015
[email protected] www.martijnkleppe.nlwww.news-use.com
@martijnkleppe
The New News Consumerwww.news-use.com