Entry points and reading paths on the newspaper spread: Comparing semiotic analysis with eye-tracking measurements.

Summary, in English

The aim of this paper is to compare general assumptions about newspaper reading with eye tracking data from readers authentic interaction with the newspaper. In the first step, we extract assumptions about newspaper reading from the (socio)semiotic literature. Second, we apply these assumptions in an analysis of a newspaper spread. The newspaper spread is analysed without any knowledge of the actual reading behaviour. Third, we use eye tracking to empirically examine so called entry points and reading paths. Eye movement data on the newspaper spread are analysed in three different ways: The temporal order of the attended areas is calculated in order to determine reading priorities. The amount of time spent on different areas is calculated in order to determine which areas have been read most. Reading depth is calculated in order to determine how carefully those areas have been read. Finally, general assumptions extracted from the (socio)semiotic framework are compared to the results of the actual reading behaviour on the newspaper spread. The results show that the empirical data confirm some of the extracted assumptions. The reading paths from the five persons taking part in the eye-tracking tests suggest that there are three main categories of readers: editorial readers, overview readers and focused readers.

• Author: Jana Holsanova; Henrik Rahm; Kenneth Holmqvist
• Department/s: Cognitive Science; Lund University Humanities Lab; Swedish
• Publishing year: 2006
• Language: English
• Pages: 65-93
• Publication/Series: Visual Communication
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 1
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Topic: Human Aspects of ICT
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1470-3572