Print Newspaper Versus Online Newspaper.

Print newspaper or online newspaper? Which is better?

The Star Newspaper from Google.com

Back then, newspaper is just a print document but now it is able to view on the internet. There are some readers prefer read the newspaper on a print document rather than reading it on the screen but some of them disagree. Why? Based on Kress and van Leeuwen (2006, p.204), print newspaper is non linear which readers read accordingly. If readers tend to skip the page to Sports Section, it is a form of cheating. Some readers search for what they want by looking the headings. According to Schriver (1997, p.376), in the print newspaper, there is the practice of making the readers “jump” to another page by “continued on page 10” that actually make some people rather stop flipping to another page because it is troublesome for them. There are flippers that flip the page backward and forward as they go (Penman 1998, p.10). The editor of newpaper has put all these important things such as structure of the texts, position of one story in relation to another, provided clues and amount of space allocated to one story or another to reach out the expert readers (Schriver 1997, p.376). Somehow, the expert newspaper readers find it hard to read the newspaper because they do not know what the design of newspaper will be create by editors even though clues are provided but hard to navigate (Schriver 1997, p,376).

The Star Online Newspaper from The Star Online.com

For online newspaper, The Star Online, some readers prefer reading on the internet. According to Nielsen (1997), reading from the computer screen is more tiring than reading on the print newspaper and it is slower to read on the screen. Hyperlinks on the website are very useful and easier for the readers to find similar information (Walsh 2006, p.30). The links are made for jumping for web readers (Schriver 1997, p.378). Readers tend to read halfway when they see hyperlinks because they think that the hyperlinks will lead them to more information. With the hyperlinks, web users will be easier to search information and hyperlinks will guide them through. Those readers that are skillful will be able to find information easily and much more beneficial and select their information orderly (Schriver 1997, p.379). Not all the readers are skillful enough to search information of what they want (Schriver 1997, p.379). There are different colours for visited and unvisited links on most of the websites and this will make the web users know which links that they have click (Nielsen 2004).

Opinion on both documents
I think that most of the readers prefer reading on print newspaper rather than reading on the screen. Even though The Star Online provide search box, hyperlinks, navigation tools and menu buttons but not everyone able to read on the screen because it is tiring to read when the article is long. Document designers might able to stop the readers to flip and fan the pages as they go by create the big and attractive headings on the print newspaper.

Reference Lists:
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images, “Chapter 6: The meaning of composition, Routledge, New York, pp. 175-214.

Nielsen, J. 1997, “Why web users scan instead of read”, Useit, viewed on 8 June 2008 at <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/whyscanning.html>

Nielsen, J. 2004, “Change of the color of visited links”, Useit, viewed on 8 June 2008 <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040503.html>

Penman, R. 1998, Communication News, “Document structures and readers’ habit”, Vol. 11, No.2, pp.1 & 10-11.

Shriver, K.A. 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, “Chapter 6: The interplay of words and pictures”, Wiley Computer Publication, New York, pp.364-441.

Walsh, M. 2006, Australian Journal of language and literacy, “The ‘textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Vol.29, No.1, pp.24-37.