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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of <strong>ECREA</strong>/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011<br />

Tools to analyze interactivity in online news<br />

Codina, Lluís; Díaz Noci, Javier<br />

Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain<br />

Interactivity is one of <strong>the</strong> most intuitive concepts, but at <strong>the</strong> same time, one of <strong>the</strong><br />

most difficult one to be defined with some rigor. Anyway, when studying online media,<br />

<strong>the</strong>re is some agreement in order to focus <strong>the</strong> concept around four axes:<br />

1. Navigation / Access: from this axis a user can develop some interactive actions to<br />

move across <strong>the</strong> contents. Although <strong>the</strong>se are in fact different concepts from different<br />

points of view, in this first group information research and navigation are usually<br />

included.<br />

2. Communication / Participation. This axis is about communication amongst medium<br />

and user, or amongst journalists and readers. It is also referred to citizen journalism,<br />

defined as content contributions by users to <strong>the</strong> medium.<br />

3. Adaptation: Adaptive interactivity is about a system capability which allows users to<br />

adapt it to <strong>the</strong>ir needs or interests. Obviously, aspects related to <strong>the</strong> interface, content<br />

selection and hierarchy are also important in online media.<br />

4. Contents. Digital environment comprehends also an interactivity dimension linked<br />

to <strong>the</strong> different information morphologies in which contents are expressed: text, sound<br />

and video. Each one of <strong>the</strong>se morphologies can appear through different interactive<br />

actions. For example, video is a communication system which incorporates a time<br />

flow.<br />

But, today, an unresolved aspect, we are interested in developing an integral<br />

approach to interaction, because most of <strong>the</strong> academic work on this subject treats just<br />

some of <strong>the</strong> mentioned axis, but not all of <strong>the</strong>m as a whole and not even researching<br />

<strong>the</strong> logic relations amongst <strong>the</strong>m.<br />

The objective of our communication will be to present some tools to analyze<br />

interactivity, taking into account <strong>the</strong> different axis explained above, and <strong>the</strong> primary<br />

results of <strong>the</strong>ir application to a sample of relevant online national and international<br />

newspapers to check and, eventually, to prove <strong>the</strong> validity of <strong>the</strong>se tools.<br />

437

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