The electronic newstand [sic] : design of an intelligent interface to a variety of news sources in several media

Abstract

The personal computer. as an intermediary between mass communications systems and the individual viewer, can filter incoming news, eliminating irrelevant and redundant stories and highlighting items of interest. However, important information can be lost by removing an article from the context of its original publication. Knowing the identity of the source helps the viewer judge the reliability and objectivity of the account. Seeing the article as originally presented among a number of other stories indicates to the viewer the significance of the story and its relationship to other current events. A program has been designed and implemented which presents news articles within the context of their original publication. It provides a uniform interface to a number of electronically distributed publications, both text and video. A two level display accommodates both casual browsing and attentive viewing. The first level, which shows several articles simultaneously , preserves the information encoded in the original layout. The second level. which displays a single article, is designed to provide the best environment for viewing that article. The program can be used to create special interest compilations. Topics of interest may be defined by marking keywords. All available sources are searched for pertinent articles. These are collected in a "synthetic" journal. The same interface is used to peruse ·an original publication and a user-specified synthetic journal.