Assessing the impact of annotation on understanding and retaining online news articles

Abstract

Today's online news readers are distracted and inundated with content. Readers tend to skim and spend little time reading an article, leaving them less informed and sometimes, unknowingly, incorrectly informed since they may miss important details of an article. This behavior can also aid in the spreading of clickbait or sensational news articles because the reader may not spend the time needed to adequately evaluate the article. Past research in education and annotations has indicated that annotating while reading initiates critical thinking and helps readers stay focused. Little research has been done to test these findings outside the education domain. This thesis applies this past research to the context of online news reading to evaluate if these benefits can translate to online news readers. Findings from a lab study conducted as part of this thesis show that on average those who annotate while they read tend to spend more time on the article and on average have a better understanding of the article. These outcomes are promising because if the findings from the study can be replicated in a larger study, they could be used in designing a reading experience that is less susceptible to sensational news or fake news.