Rich Content in Digital News Stories an Investigation of How Rich Content Can Enhance Digital News Stories and Widen the Audience

EXAMENSARBETE INOM MEDIETEKNIK, AVANCERAD NIVÅ, 30 HP STOCKHOLM, SVERIGE 2020

Rich Content in Digital News Stories An investigation of how rich content can enhance digital news stories and widen the audience

EMMA IGELSTRÖM

KTH SKOLAN FÖR ELEKTROTEKNIK OCH DATAVETENSKAP Abstract

The way digital news are being created today is very different from traditional printed methods. The digital news format has possibilities that printed versions do not have. For example, they can use animations, video, audio, and interactivity, referred to with a collective name as rich content in this study. The problem is that there is little knowledge about rich content, how it is being used and the reasons for using it. By interviewing journalists and content creators, this study aims to answer the following questions: How can rich content help convey a digital news story to the reader in a more engaging way than traditional methods? How can rich content help widen the audience of digital news stories?

Through semi-structured interviews, the author explored how rich content is used, and how people think when creating it. Ten employees at the media house Schibsted, all working at different norwegian newspapers, participated to this study.

The results indicate that rich content in digital news articles can help convey a news story’s main points by delivering complex things in an easy and understandable way. As a result, rich content seems to encourage more readers to finish the whole article. This study has also found that rich content can be used to widen the audience, since it can make the promotion of an article more interesting and make more people eager to share the article on their own social media accounts. Furthermore, targeting news articles towards different user groups could help widen the audience even further. Strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and the future work section show potential in further investigating how different user groups are affected by rich content, and what types of articles can benefit the most by using rich content.

Sammanfattning

Det sätt som digitala nyhetsartiklar skapas på idag skiljer sig mycket från traditionella tryckta metoder. Det digitala nyhets formatet har möjligheter som tryckta versioner inte har. Till exempel, användning av animationer, video, ljud och interaktivitet, som med ett kollektivt namn kallas för rich content i denna studie. Problemet är att det finns begränsad kunskap om rich content, hur det används och anledningarna till användning av det. Genom intervjuer med journalister och innehållsskapare har denna studies mål varit att besvara följande frågeställningar: Hur kan rich content hjälpa till att förmedla digitala nyheter till läsaren på ett mer engagerande sätt än traditionella metoder? Hur kan rich content hjälpa till med att bredda publiken av digitala nyheter?

Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer undersökte författaren hur rich content används och hur de anställda tänker under skapandet av rich content. Tio anställda på mediehuset Schibsted, som alla arbetar vid olika norska tidningar, deltog till denna studie.

Resultaten indikerar att rich content i digitala nyhetsartiklar kan hjälpa att förmedla en nyhets huvudbudskap genom att leverera komplexa saker på ett enkelt och mer förståeligt sätt. Resultaten visar på att rich content verkar uppmuntra fler läsare till att läsa klart hela artikeln. Denna studies resultat visar även att rich content kan användas till att bredda publiken, eftersom det kan göra marknadsföringen av en artikeln mer intressant och får fler människor att vilja dela artikeln på sina egna sociala medier. Vidare kan riktade nyhetsartiklar mot olika användargrupper hjälpa till att bredda publiken ytterligare. Eventuella styrkor och svagheter diskuteras och stycket framtida arbete visar potentiell vidare undersökning gällande hur olika användargrupper påverkas av rich content och vad för typ av artiklar som kan dra störst fördel av användning av rich content. Rich Content in Digital News Stories - An investigation of how rich content can enhance digital news stories and widen the audience

Emma Igelström KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden [email protected]

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The way digital news are being created today is very In the creation of today’s digital news, modalities, other different from traditional printed methods. The digital news than text, such as visual and auditory have become both format has possibilities that printed versions do not have. normal and very important. According to Ivankho et al. For example, they can use animations, video, audio, and [14] “To produce smart and deep journalism is not enough interactivity, referred to with a collective name as rich to be powerful in the digital age”. Today’s creators of content in this study. The problem is that there is little digital news stories need to adapt and always seek to knowledge about rich content, how it is being used and the evolve the digital news story template. To engage the reasons for using it. By interviewing journalists and content audience, or the so-called readers, users or even viewers, creators, this study aims to answer the following questions: different modalities are being used in new exciting ways. How can rich content help convey a digital news story to Digital news stories use a vast amount of rich content. Rich the reader in a more engaging way than traditional content in this study refers to everything in an article that is methods? How can rich content help widen the audience of not text and image. For example, videos, animations and digital news stories? sound, that are used in the same time and place, which

Through semi-structured interviews, the author explored means that digital news stories containing rich content have how rich content is used, and how people think when gone away from the traditional news template in physical creating it. Ten employees at the media house Schibsted, newspapers with only text and images. This has been done all working at different norwegian newspapers, participated in order to be able to allow interactivity within a story, and to this study. actually allow viewers to hear or see what happened, and has become an important part of consuming digital news. It The results indicate that rich content in digital news articles offers the user a diverse perspective and a more in depth can help convey a news story’s main points by delivering understanding of what actually happened [19]. According complex things in an easy and understandable way. As a to the New York Times team, it is important to evolve as result, rich content seems to encourage more readers to fast as possible, they state: “Our core mission remains finish the whole article. This study has also found that rich producing the world's best journalism. But with the endless content can be used to widen the audience, since it can upheaval in technologies, reader habits and the entire make the promotion of an article more interesting and business, the Times needs to pursue smart new strategies make more people eager to share the article on their own for growing our audience. The urgency is only growing social media accounts. Furthermore, targeting news articles because digital media is getting more crowded, better towards different user groups could help widen the founded and far more innovative” [14]. Another word for audience even further. Strengths and weaknesses are rich content is multimedia journalism, which is defined as discussed, and the future work section show potential in “presentation of a news story package on a website using further investigating how different user groups are affected two or more media formats, such as (but not limited to) by rich content, and what types of articles can benefit the spoken or written words, music, moving and still images, most by using rich content. graphic animations, including interactive and hyper-textual elements” [17]. Author Keywords Rich content; Digital News Stories; I-docs; Multimedia Since rich content is being used in vast amounts in digital journalism; Longform; news stories today, it is important to know if it actually helps to convey the story. According to Pincus et al. [17] messages delivered through several modalities can require more cognitive abilities and may be too demanding for the

1 information processing system in the brain. In other words, There is no doubt that the Snow Fall article was a success rich content could be more distracting than plain text. If with its 3.5 million views and a Pulitzer Prize. The Snow that is true, it would be interesting to understand why it is Fall article increased the duration of the average visit to the increasing despite being distracting for the reader. The article to 12 minutes, which is more than 10 times the norm answer could be that people are just starting to get used to according to the then editor Jill Abramson [10] and this type of news stories and they find it novel and exciting, therefore seems to have made the readers more engaged. or it could be that it makes the story more interesting. This This seems to go against the idea, supported by some report will try to discover the reasons why rich content is research [14], that people that read news online only read being used more and more in digital news stories. short and quick news. After the release and success of Snow Fall, Jill Abramson claimed that “Snow Fall” has BACKGROUND now become a “verb” of its own used by editors to refer to This section is an introduction to the field of digital news the creation of similar glitzy and high-profile projects [10]. stories creation, and an introduction of the different Different news formats and effects on users existing templates that use rich content. The Snow Fall article is a so-called longform article. The Snow Fall term longform describes articles that take deep dives into In 2012, The New York Times won the Pulitzer prize for stories and attempt to inform readers in substantive ways or their publication of John Branch’s “Snow Fall: The to elicit impact. However, Snow Fall can also be Avalanche at Tunnel Creek” [10]. This article was considered an interactive documentary. Interactive designed for the tablet and “marked a watershed moment in documentaries, or i-docs as they are often called and will digital journalism” [10]. What this article did was to be referred to throughout this report, use a high amount of change how the template for a digital news story could rich content. According to the article “Interactive look like. The Snow Fall article has several different parts documentary: setting the field” [3] the definition for i-docs and each part is about as long as one traditional article is “any project that starts with an intention to document the itself. The article contains interactive elements throughout ‘real’ and that uses digital interactive technology to realize the textual story line, for example videos that the reader this intention”. According to [2] the interactive technology can click on to view. Also, it has different animations, such is employed to build the components of the documentary as the mountain where the avalanche took place. The reader story in order to convey an interactive communication with can see the mountain from different angles and really get the user. What is interesting with i-docs is the large amount an understanding of where and how the avalanche of rich content that they hold to tell a story and engage happened. The animation circles around the mountain, and users. I-docs and interactive storytelling in media builds a shows where the hike was, the gathering point and where dynamic relationship between authors, users, technology the avalanche started (see Figures 1, 2). and the environment that allows for fluidity, emergence and co-emergence of reality [2].

Research on the reception of rich content in digital news stories has not yet found consensus. According to some research [1], the majority of i-docs do not keep their users reading beyond a few minutes. This leads to questioning why the amount of rich content is so high if it do not engage the readers for a longer time. I-docs and the term

longform overlap in how they portray a story and use Figure 1: Animation of the mountain, “Snow Fall: The similar templates. According to the American Press Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, The New York Times, 2012. institute, readers generally engage more with longer stories and longform stories receive more views and shares than other stories [15]. However, according to [19], long texts from printed editions do not suit publishing online. This could mean that to produce longform articles for online consumption one has to take into account the platform and adapt the content to it, enabling the use of rich content.

To meet the needs of different users, it is necessary to have Figure 2: Animation of the mountain and where the hike to a diversity of formats in digital news [8]. This involves Tunnel Creek was. “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel text, and rich content, such as, video, audio, and Creek”, The New York Times, 2012. animations. In the study, by Carpenter [8], it is reported

2 that information must be presented in a range of formats in are used to activate the features and this requires more order to, for example, encourage young people to become knowledge than is expected of all journalists. politically involved. Furthermore, Carpenter writes that younger people prefer to experience their media through visuals and interactive features [8]. In the following study [18] the results show that vivid news videos did not evoke strong emotional response by viewers. News articles were processed more deeply than news videos. Therefore, in this project, it is interesting to understand how content creators and journalists think when using rich content, such as videos, in digital articles and how they think with regard to connecting to different user groups and catching their engagement in order to make them read the articles. Figure 5: The article “Today’s most important news”, the first card, VG, 2020. In this project, people behind the digital news stories of today at the company Schibsted have been interviewed. Schibsted is a Norwegian company and is the largest media group in Scandinavia and owns several different news papers. There are many different article formats in Schibsted’s CMS-system (content management system), two formats are “Feature template” and “Story template”. The Feature template is used for visual narratives and show pictures with text scrolling over it when the user scrolls down, and videos are being automatically played (see

Figure 3, 4) [12]. Figure 6: The article “Today’s most important news”, the second card, VG, 2020.

When Schibsted creates an article without any format they call it “Specials”. This is articles that are made by editorial developers and they create the format specially for that article and its content, and the format does not exist in their CMS-system. One example is an article created to show statistics of different values from the COVID-19 pandemic. This article was custom made and had no template, and combined different moving diagrams with text, and links Figure 3: Scrolling down on the article “Tarjei’s Experiment” one can press to see more (see Figures 7, 8) [16].

VG, 2020.

Figure 4: The article “Tarjei’s Experiment”. Video of Tarjei playing automatically, VG, 2020. Figure 7: The article “Live: The corona virus is spreading in The Story template uses a scroll technique and show one Norway and the World”, VG, 2020. image or video with a short text beside it, called a card. The user make one scroll and the next card with picture and text is shown (see Figure 5, 6) [6]. Below, code snippets

3 predefined questions with the open-ended exploration of an unstructured interview [20]. This way of conducting an interview ensures answers for the same questions from all interviewees, but at the same time opens up the possibility to dive deeper into an area and/or ask follow up questions when new issues arise. Semi-structured interviews may bring light to previously unexplored issues. An important advantage with this interviewing method is the comparability of responses since all interviewees answer the same basic questions [13]. However, the follow-up questions that might occur give each semi-structured

Figure 8: The article “Live: The corona virus is spreading in interview ranges of answers that might be difficult to compare. Norway and the World”, VG, 2020.

Regular articles, or traditional digital articles, consist of a Ten interviews were conducted. Four female and six male heading, introduction, text, images and often some rich Schibsted employees, with different occupations regarding content, and have different layout styles for news, sports, rich content, participated. Due to the prevailing entertainment et cetera. The different newspapers create circumstances of COVID-19, two of the six male their own styles based on functionalities in the participants answered through a questionnaire. The CMS-system and all journalists can create these articles. remaining eight participated through semi-structured video interviews. Video was chosen because all participants were This project’s research question located in Norway and real meetings were not possible. The first year in which the internet topped the newspapers The duration of each interview ranged between 30 minutes for readership was 2009 [19]. This was not just an isolated and an hour. All interviews were audio recorded and trend in 2009, all news portals have attracted since then transcribed. The results from the transcriptions were more and more visitors each year [15]. This project will analysed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is a investigate the usage of rich content in digital news stories method for identifying, analyzing, and interpreting patterns from the creators’ perspective and their knowledge. To of meaning within qualitative data [9]. Before the research their reasons and choices for using rich content in interview, information about the project was given to their digital news stories will further our understanding of participants through the messaging tool Slack. The the function rich content has in digital news stories. Since questions were sent to all participants in advance, enabling Schibsted owns several newspapers the company was able preparation. The questionnaire had the same basic to provide a deep and broad knowledge base on rich questions as the semi-structured interviews, with the content for this investigation. This project addressed the possibility to add further thoughts and comments. following research questions:

1. How can rich content help convey a digital news RESULTS story to the reader in a more engaging way than In this section the results from the interviews and traditional methods? questionnaires will be presented and compared. 2. How can rich content help widen the audience of Interviewees digital news stories? The interviewees had different professional roles: Head of

Editorial Development, Art Director and Designer, Head METHOD of Photography, Video and Multimedia, Designer, Digital This section explains the method used to gather Multimedia Designer, Journalist, Head of Editorial, Team information about why, how and when rich content is used Leader Newsroom Development, Online Editor, and Head in digital news articles. The positive and negative effects it of Department. The different newspapers that the can have on readers, why it is being used, and what are the interviewees worked at were “Verdens Gang” also called difficulties when creating and using it. “VG”, “Stavanger Aftenblad”, “Aftenposten” and “Bergens Semi-structured interviews Tidende”.

According to Mark Hughes, an ideal type of interview Reasons why rich content is used which suits all situations does not exist. Instead, one must All interviewees were asked about their reasons for using choose the most suitable type of interview depending on rich content in their digital news stories. One reason that all ones research project [13]. This study chose the interviewees mentioned was to provide clarity to the user semi-structured interview technique in order to gather and a straightforward way to easily understand the story: qualitative results. A semi-structured interview combines

4 rich content provides the possibility to explain complex “When you are going to tell a sad story, it doesn’t have to things in an easier way. One interviewee stated: be all sad. It needs some joy and humor as well. It catches “If you want to describe a situation where someone took a the reader and shows the whole picture.” - Journalist train from Stockholm to a certain destination, you could write about it using 500 words. Or, instead you could use an animation that shows the reader the same thing. That would make it much clearer.” - Head of Editorial Development

Another interviewee answered:

“To make it clearer to the user, there is a lot that is complicated and that will not be easier to understand no matter what language you use. It may be easier for the user to have it displayed in a different way than explained in text.” Figure 6: Image of animation used in the article “Give me a little happiness before I die”, Stavanger Aftenblad, 2019. - Team Leader Newsroom Development However, the reasons for using rich content depends Another interviewee gave an example of an article they had substantially on what materials exist about a story, and just published the day of the interview. The article was what tools are best suited for the situation. One about new tunnels that had been built in Stavanger, interviewee explained: Norway, and the interviewee said: “If something is best explained by video, then we use video. “The development team created graphs that show the If something is best told with text, then we keep using text traffic numbers and how people travel, and how the traffic and if it is graphics that tells the story the best, then we use has changed after the construction of the tunnels. That is that. Or it could be a combination of everything that makes one example of how rich content can tell a story in itself. it the best.” You can go into the graphs and see how things are, it - Head of Department would have been difficult to tell the same story only using words.” Research about rich content - Digital Multimedia Designer The interviewees were asked about what research they conduct about rich content. None of the interviewees Another reason for using rich content was to engage the researched in depth about rich content, or how information readers more, and deepen their feelings for the story. One is best consumed and understood by readers. What mostly interviewee explained that it is important to use tools that all interviewees mentioned was that they looked at the get the message that one wants to convey through to the average reading time from the readers and the completion readers. Another interviewee said that rich content is also rate. One interviewee said. being used to get readers intrigued to click on an article on the front page of the newspaper's website, or as promotion “We are starting to get a significant amount of numbers in for the article. In those cases the readers can watch a video reader time, how many and how long readers keep on that has been created in the same way as a movie trailer. reading the article. We see that they are very, very positive. The trailer gives the tone of the article and is created to Both in numbers of users and how long each reader spends draw the reader's attention into the article and make them on the articles (this figure is exceptional). It is not want to read the whole thing. uncommon for the average time to be over five minutes, something we could only dream of before. We also see Rich content can be used to provide a fuller picture of a within the paywall that longreads or rich content articles story, the journalist said. The journalist gave an example of also have become sales winners.” a story of a woman in Stavanger, Norway, who died as a - Art Director and Designer result of drug abuse. The story is very tragic and one can see police pictures of the woman in custody, and also Many mentioned that it would be good to have a tool to be pictures of her being very sick and frayed. However, the able to see exactly where in an article readers stop reading woman was also a very good dancer and ran a ballet and leave the article. Such a tool could give an indication school. Therefore, along with the sad content, they used of weak points in an article, one interviewee explained. The pink animations throughout the story that portrayed the interviewees stated that they were aware that too few woman dancing and other elements of her life (see Figure people read everything in an article. Three of the 6) [4]. Here, rich content was used to show a happier side interviewees said that they have made some user surveys of the woman's life. The journalist said: where people from outside the newspaper came in and read

5 an article. There they could see how the test persons interacted and read the article. This is not research that is being done systematically.

All the interviewees wanted a better tool to analyse at a component level how the readers interact when reading an article. Many also mentioned that they were aware that Schibsted soon would have better possibilities to see how readers behave while reading an article. They were positive to this change in the system.

Several interviewees said that when rich content use was Figure 6: Second page of the scrollytelling article “Five things you should know about ‘Ice Edge’”, VG, 2020. new in articles, the amount of interactions were high. However, that made the users also lose interest, and they Difficulties with using rich content did not click on the interactions and the functions in the The interviewees were asked what they saw as difficulties articles. One interviewee said: when using rich content and what could make it easier. Many mentioned that rich content has technological “It was one period where we did very advanced content challenges. Every article must work on different platforms, with a lot of interactions and many click functions back which use different screens and ways the user interacts and forth in the story. We saw that very few people actually with that screen. One interviewee working in a department, did this. The interactivity should be as easy as possible, called Z, that focuses on a younger user group (where most and there shouldn’t be too many options of what one can of the readers uses their phone to read the news) answered: do within an article.” - Head of Department “We focus on the phone version first which makes the desktop version suffer. If we didn’t have to think about the One interviewee explained one consequence that emerged desktop version and only focus on the phone version, then from looking at the completion rate metric and the lack of we could do some more exciting things for the phone clicks in the interactions. A new type of template for articles that are not possible for desktop usage.” articles was created, called scrollytelling. Scrollytelling is - Head of Department when the user gets one page at a time and has to scroll to the next to see more of the article, similar to the Story The Online Editor explained that they want a lot of visual template. Each page contains rich content combined with content. However, it is quite demanding to re-educate an a short text (see Figures 5, 6) [7]. This template was entire editorial house, with many traditions, to work in a created to encourage users to finish the whole article in whole new way. She continued by saying: combination with the fact that few people used the heavy “We have 65% of our users who read our articles on their amount of interactions. The interviewee said: phones. Therefore, our articles should be developed “Scrollytelling is a direct consequence of that very few primarily for the phone. That is a change that is very users clicked on the interactions, therefore the articles demanding to teach to adult people” were made to be simpler” - Online Editor

- Head of Photography, Video and Multimedia - Another difficulty regarding technology is that it can take a long time to develop new templates or changes in the system, since it must be anchored in all parts of Schibsted, and its systems, and all changes must be approved, the interviewees explained. Small changes, in the data systems and the templates that exist, therefore takes months to get into place. One interviewee said:

“The tools are limited. Had we been given a more flexible news article template or the opportunity to be able to do more, it would be easier and not so resource-intensive. Figure 5: Image of the first page of the scrollytelling article Then journalists could create more themselves and we “Five things you should know about ‘Ice Edge’”, VG, 2020. could create more complex things and experiment more.” - Team Leader Newsroom Developer

Many interviewees agreed that if it were easier to use and create rich content, more accessible, they would use it more. One interviewee said:

“It’s not easily accessible, one cannot just drag down a “I think we need several levels of reading news today. Both feature and use it they way one wish to. But if it were give the reader a quick understanding of what the article is easier we would use rich content more.” about, and use text as an add-on to be able to dive deeper - Online Editor down into the information” - Digital Multimedia Designer It can be very time consuming to create rich content in itself also, one interviewee mentioned and continued: Another interviewee said:

“It often takes time to create, so the news can be gone or “Previously, we were only able to tell a story in one way - have developed before you’re done.” regular news articles. We want to tell a story in the way it - Designer deserves. That’s what we want to achieve with rich content

One thing that many pointed out as important is that as well. Telling the story in the best way it can be told. journalists need to think of the structure of a story and what Whether it’s with video, just pictures and captions, or in a rich content they want for the article before writing, or typographically exciting way. We are not there yet that we even before starting a project. It is hard to create and add have plenty of opportunities but we have moved quite a bit rich content after the story has been written. Then one must in just a year. Our hopes are that the development compromise with the text and sometimes delete text, one continues at an even faster pace.” - Art Director and Designer interviewee explained. Another interviewee said:

“Journalists have to think more on the article as a whole Another interviewee explained that one needs to look at the project rather than a text with pictures. That way it will whole story and adapt the rich content to it. Sometimes it is never be good. Pictures, videos, text and presentation must the whole story that needs to be created in a custom-made all help each other to become the best possible and way that generates engagement. Other times the story is collaborate.“ fairly traditional and it is only a small part of the story that - Art Director and Designer needs to be created with rich content. Also, the interviewee pointed out that it is important to think about storytelling The journalist said that he talks to the content creator as techniques. To take part of a story and understand it can be early in the process as possible. He has worked with the solved in many different ways. The interviewee continued same video journalist for many years and value that by saying: person’s ideas highly and they have a very close collaboration. The journalist said: “There will be new technologies, new user habits and young people will have completely different expectations “I have sometimes been talking to the video journalist too than adults and older people.” late into the process and that limits the possibilities in a - Head of Editorial Department way.” - Journalist The Head of Photography, Video and Multimedia explained that the scrollytelling format forces the The journalist also mentioned that the resources of people journalists to write with a visual point in mind and it also with good knowledge of creating rich content is limited and forces the journalist to write shorter texts. That makes it this was something many interviewees agreed upon. easier to get through the whole article and it makes it Another interviewee said: easier to understand everything. The interviewee said:

“We produce content and we need people that can think in “Scrollytelling forces the usage of simpler language and a terms of both technical coding and the visual, and not more compressed language. One risk, however, is that the many people have that combination of skills.” story doesn’t get deep enough.” - Head of Editorial Department - Head of Photography, Video and Multimedia

Conveying the main message The journalist said that it is very important to not repeat The interviewees were asked if and how rich content can oneself in a story and this holds true also when integrating help with conveying the main message, or the main point, rich content. The journalist said: in a digital news story. Also, why it helps in this regard. What many interviewees agreed upon was that rich content “We are very conscious of where in an article the rich helps tell a story in a more effective, and efficient way in content is placed and we try to avoid repeating what has order to give the reader a faster understanding of what the already been told in text. It should not feel unnecessary to story is about. For example, using graphs to explain watch a video.” - Journalist statistics instead of using words. Nevertheless, all agreed that text is still very important and something they will Another interviewee said that rich content is a great tool to keep using. One interviewee said: target readers emotions and said:

“Rich content can be a very strong storytelling technique Bigger audience to get the reader close to the events in the story.” The interviewees were asked if they thought rich content - Head of Editorial can help reach a bigger and wider audience. Many

The interviewee continued to explain that people today are interviewees believed that rich content helps in reaching a very used to consuming sound and video. However, it has bigger audience, especially a younger audience that are to feel natural in a story. If done right there are many used to watching videos and short clips in their everyday opportunities to convey emotions and move the storytelling lives. One interviewee said that they do not measure techniques from explaining things using text, to experience demographics but that it would be very interesting to look the feelings for oneself. The interviewee said: closer at it. The Head of Department where they are focusing on reaching a younger crowd said: “I want to say that it’s absolutely essential for a media house in 2020 to experiment with telling stories in a whole “I believe that the content of the story is the most new way.” important. One cannot see on the first page of the news - Head of Editorial website if the article contains rich content or not. It’s the content of the story that one clicks on and not the shape of Effects on users the article.” The interviewees were asked what positive or negative - Head of Department effect they could see from using rich content. There was overall agreement that rich content should not take the Furthermore, the Head of Editorial explained that it is focus away from the story. That one do not use it too much very hard to know why young people have read an article. or in a way that disrupts the story. The negative effects Another interviewee explained that when one has a theme from using rich content in a disruptive way or too much and can present and explain it by using several tools in the was that users stopped reading and quick exits occurred article, such as videos, pictures, sound, and more, it gives a from the articles. Another interviewee said: different width to the story than by just using text. The interviewee continued by saying: “When rich content becomes a seamless part of the story we get longer reading time.” “Then you can meet more readers at different levels as we - Head of Editorial are all different. And to be able to reach the whole population we have to present things in different ways.” What many also said was that one should not use rich - Team Leader Newsroom Developer content just because it is possible. Rich content needs to add value to the story. It was explained by the Digital Multimedia Designer that they do not adapt their tone in articles to several different A positive effect of using rich content is the possibility to target groups. They do not have the resources for that. add cliffhangers inside a story. This contributed to What they can do is change the tone depending on where increased reading time and also the desire to read more of they promote the article. the article from the readers. One interviewee said: Rich content can make the article look very attractive, the “The last three years we have worked a lot with decreasing storytelling technique adds its own value said one the drop off rates. We have started to tease the reader with interviewee. That can make people want to share to a what they will see next and show that this is part of a higher extent on social media. The interviewee continued bigger story. We have analysed this and is has worked by saying: well.” - Head of Department “It gets the same effects as in gaming. Before playing a game one usually gets to watch a trailer. This trailer sets Other effects the interviewees could see from users were the tone for the game. If one gets a compressed story that shares on social media and a higher or lower paywall sales sets the tone for the article one can get an immersive for premium articles. However, the interviewees mentioned experience which is the feeling of being a part of the that it is hard to tell what made people buy the article or story.” share it on social media. It could be the theme of the - Head of Photography, Video and Multimedia article, interest from people, the rich content, or all factors combined. One interviewee said: Goals with using rich content The interviewees were asked what their goals were when “We can see that the stories we have worked a lot with get using rich content in digital news articles. All interviewees read by many and shared more on social media. Whether said that their goal was to tell the story in the most it’s about us being better at selling those articles or that we effective way possible and make the readers be able to have worked with them so much is hard to say.” quickly understand complicated things. What was also - Digital Multimedia Designer brought up by many was to be able to capture the reader's

8 attention and affect people’s emotions. One interviewee study was affected by COVID-19 with respect to the said: number of interviewees that had time to participate. All

“The goal with rich content is to get as many readers as participants in this study work with delivering and creating possible and affect people’s emotions and make them react. content for news articles which made them have less time To get them to read/listen/watch everything from A to Z. because of the heavy reporting of COVID-19. The results Also, to use the right tools possible to achieve this” could be further strengthened by also interviewing users, - Journalist and gathering their thoughts, feelings and how they use, and perceive, rich content when reading an article. This One interviewee said: was not something this study focused on.

“Develop new ways of telling stories.” What the results give indications towards are that rich - Art Director and Designer content provides a tool for explaining complex things in an Another interviewee said: easier way, where the reader can comprehend the story and facts given faster. Instead of explaining intricate events “The goal with rich content is also to push the reader using only text, the creators and journalists are able to through long reads and keep the interest up. Our idea is to show the reader in a more distinct way what happened, for embed rich content in the article so that one gets an example, similarly to how in the Snowfall article they experience while reading.” displayed the mountain, the route and where the avalanche - Digital Multimedia Designer took place using animations instead of text [10]. Therefore, Another one said: rich content could be used more when the story involves

“Create a premium feeling to give value to one's money complicated things, such as statistics, or provide the reader and to get closer to the story. We can also see that our all the necessary facts in a timely manner. However, the completion rate increases. It’s easier to create an results show that rich content should not only be used in experience when you push the reader through the article.” shorter stories. It was brought up that rich content engages - Head of Photography, Video and Multimedia the reader more and deepens their personal feelings for the story. For longform articles one can use rich content to The Head of Editorial Department explained that the goal make the reader feel more, keep their engagement high, of using rich content is to give a better user experience and and make them want to read everything. This correlates a better understanding. When there are big projects that one with the statements from the American Press Institute that has been working on for several months or even years with, readers generally engage more with longer stories [15] and there is usually a lot of data and values that one wants to could indicate that longer stories benefit from using more show. Then rich content is a great tool to make it rich content. However, according to research [1] the understandable. Furthermore, a project could be small, but majority of i-docs do not keep their users reading beyond a have a very complex theme and one has to explain it the few minutes. This goes against what interviewees said best way possible. The Head of Editorial Department also about their average reading time. They see an increase both said: in numbers of users and how long each reader spends on an “Sometimes we can make quizzes, where we ask questions article. Also, the use of cliffhangers were a tool to make the and force the reader to take a stand. This probably makes reader finish the whole article which seems to have given one remember the answers better as well than if it was good results. This could be investigated further to explained with heaps of text. You get engaged, you have to understand where in an article one should add a take a stand and you become a part of the story.” cliffhanger. - Head of Editorial Department According to [19] printed, long texts do not suit publishing DISCUSSION online, and this study's findings show the importance for The purpose of this study was to investigate how rich journalists to think about what rich content they want to content can help convey a digital news story to the reader use at the beginning of a project, and not write a long text in a more engaging way than traditional methods and reach and add rich content in the end. The interviewees said that a wider audience. Semi-structured interviews were journalists today are better at this, but it is still something conducted with different content creators and journalists at that needs to improve. The conclusions that can be drawn several newspapers within the Schibsted conglomerate to are that traditional journalism needs to move towards understand why they use rich content, in what way and modern journalism, where rich content is a huge part what their goals are when using it. of delivering digital articles today. Nevertheless, the

The method chosen for this study could give better results interviewees were well aware of the importance of the rich if there were more interviewees that participated. This content not to be disrupting or irritating for the user. It seems as if too many interactive functions in an article

9 makes people exit the article faster. Therefore, the results FUTURE WORK indicate that, as in the study [17], using several modalities For future work it would be interesting to investigate how may be too demanding for the information system in the rich content affects different user groups, such as different brain. The interviewee's response to this was to create a age groups. User habits and daily technical use combined template that had very few interactions but still use rich with age could be analyzed to understand if rich content is content, such as sound, video, and graphs, which seems to better suited for a younger crowd, accustomed to a have given better results, in terms of finishing the whole technological world. It would also be interesting to look article and increased reading time. further at what types of articles benefit from using rich

The interviewees’ mostly used metrics to gauge user content in regards to length and theme. engagement was time spent inside an article, and completion rate. What was made clear by the results is that CONCLUSION the average time spent on an article has reached higher The aim for this study was to determine how rich content numbers on articles that contain more rich content, which can help convey a digital news story to the reader in a more correlates with the results in [15]. Whether this result was engaging way than traditional methods and help widen the due to the rich content, people's interest in particular audience of digital news stories. The results show that rich stories, the presentation, the selling strategies, or all content in digital news articles can help convey a news factors above combined, was however hard to establish, story’s main points by delivering complex things in an and it would be interesting to study this deeper. easier and more understandable way. Also, rich content seems to encourage more readers to finish the whole The interviewees used rich content to promote a story article, providing higher completion rates and reading through professionally made videos, with a high production times. Rich content can target users’ emotions by telling value. It is interesting that this made users more eager to stories in a more compelling way, and additionally can share the articles on their own social media, which in turn provide the feeling of being a part of the story. This study enables the possibility of reaching more people than the has found that rich content can be used to widen the newspaper could do by themselves. In these cases the rich audience, since it can make the promotion of an article content has its own value outside an article. Creating these more interesting and make more people eager to share the videos has become a way of attracting more people and not article on their own social media accounts. This study also just reporting the news, which correlates with [14] where found that targeting news articles towards different user the authors state that creators need to do more than to groups is not currently possible due to resources, but that it produce smart and deep journalism to be powerful in the is something that could help widen the audience even digital age. further. When the interviewees will have the possibility to see where in an article the drop off rate is the highest, it will ACKNOWLEDGMENTS be interesting to see how article templates will develop in I would like to give a big thank you to all my interviewees the future. This could provide information about what the that participated, and my supervisor Gaute Tjemsland at weak points are in an article, why users lose interest or Schibsted. I also want to thank my supervisor at KTH, further knowledge about what elements distract the user. Sandra Pauletto for all the encouragement and discussions. According to [8] it is necessary to have a diversity of Lastly, I would like to thank my manager at Schibsted, formats in digital news and the interviewees seems to work Anna Stenberg, for always checking up on me. quite a bit in exploring new and different formats, even though text is still an important tool that will probably not disappear in digital news stories any time soon.

Since resources limit the possibility of creating several different versions of one article it could be fair to say that adapted articles for both platform and user groups are not happening in the near future. This study’s findings indicates that one could reach more people, if the articles could be aimed towards different user groups and platforms, and be able to use rich content in diverse ways that could provide a wider spectrum of consuming news.

10 REFERENCES [11] Esiyok, C., Kille, B., Jain, B. J., Hopfgartner, F., & [1] Aston, J., Gaudenzi, S., & Rose, M. (2017). Albayrak, S. (2014, August). Users' reading habits in I-Docs: The evolving practices and interactive online news portals. In Proceedings of the 5th documentary (Nonfictions). Chapter 7. New York: Information Interaction in Context Symposium (pp. Columbia University Press. doi: 263-266). https://doi.org/10.1145/2637002.2637038 https://doi-org.focus.lib.kth.se/10.7312/asto18122 [12] Goliomo, M., & Møller-Hansen, J. (2020) Tarjes [2] Alkarimeh, B & Boutin, E. (2016). Interactive Eksperiment, VG. Documentary: A Proposed Model and Definition. https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/Opd1z1/tarjeis-e French Journal for Media Research, 01 December ksperiment 2016. [13] Hughes, M. (2016). Interviewing. Research [3] Aston, J & Gaudenzi, S. (2012) Interactive methods for postgraduates, 264-274. documentary: setting the field, Studies in https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118763025.ch26 Documentary Film, 6:2, 125-139, DOI: 10.1386/sdf.6.2.125_1 [14] Ivakhno, O. & Sklower, J. (2014). How media dinosaurs adapt to the digital era?. Communication [4] Bjørne, T., Ergo, T. (2019) Give me a little Studies. happiness before I die. Stavanger Aftenblad. https://www.academia.edu/9711752/Ivakhno_How_m https://www.aftenbladet.no/magasin/i/Onxqek/gi-meg- edia_dinosaurs_adapt_to_the_digital_era litt-lykke-foer-jeg-doer [15] Kovacs, K. (2016). How to engage readers with [5] Branch, J. (2012) Snow Fall: The Avalanche at digital longform journalism. American Press Institute. Tunnel Creek. The New York Times. Retrieved Retrieved February 13, 2020 from February 13, 2020 from https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/re http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/index ports/strategy-studies/engaging-longform-journalism/ .html#/?part=tunnel-creek [16] Nilsen, S et al. (2020) Live: The Corona virus is [6] Bremer, H. (2020) Dagens viktigaste nyheter. VG. spreading in Norway and the world, VG. https://www.vg.no/spesial/c/stories/6jbgje https://www.vg.no/spesial/2020/corona/

[7] Bremer, H., & Spets, K. (2020) Five things you [17] Pincus, H., Wojcieszak, M., & Boomgarden, H. should know about ‘Ice Edge’. VG. (2017). Do Multimedia Matter? Cognitive and https://www.vg.no/spesial/c/stories/opzzmm Affective Effects of Embedded Multimedia Journalism. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 94(3), [8] Carpenter, S. (2010). A study of content diversity 747–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699016654679 in online citizen journalism and online newspaper articles. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1064–1084. [18] Powell, T. E., Boomgaarden, H. G., De Swert, K. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444809348772 & De Vreese, C. H. (2018) Video Killed the News Article? Comparing Multimodal Framing Effects in [9] Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017) Thematic analysis, News Videos and Articles, Journal of Broadcasting & The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12:3, 297-298, Electronic Media, 62:4, 578-596, DOI: DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613 10.1080/08838151.2018.1483935

[10] Dowling, D., Vogan, T. (2015) Can We M . [19] Veglis, A. (2012). From Cross Media to “Snowfall” This?, Digital Journalism, 3:2, 209-224, Transmedia Reporting in Newspaper Articles. Pub DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2014.930250 Res Q (2012) 28: 313.

11 https://doi-org.focus.lib.kth.se/10.1007/s12109-012-92 94-z

[20] Wilson, C. (2014). Interview techniques for UX practitioners : A user-centered design method. https://www-sciencedirect-com.focus.lib.kth.se/book/9 780124103931/interview-techniques-for-ux-practitione rs

12 APPENDIX

Research Questions: How can rich content help convey a digital news story to the reader in a more engaging way than traditional methods?

How can rich content help widen the audience of digital news stories?

Introduction: I am doing my master thesis at Schibsted and I’m investigating the topic rich content. The term rich content means everything in an article that is not text and an image. For example videos, animations, sound and interactive segments. We will discuss your knowledge about rich content, how you come in contact with it in your work life and your thoughts and ideas around the usement of it in digital news stories. The goal of this interview is for me to understand how you use rich content in your work, why you use it and the benefits you can see or negative aspects.

Interview Questions:

● Name:

● What is your job title?

● What is your background?

● What led you to this job at Schibsted?

● How long have you worked in your current role?

● How do you use rich content when creating digital news stories? ○ What are the reasons for using rich content in your news stories? ○ When do you feel the need for using rich content in news stories?

● Could you give me an example of where you have used rich content?

● What is your goal with using rich content?

● What research have you done about rich content?

● What is your knowledge of how rich content is consumed by the users?

● What are the effects that you can see that the rich content has on the users? ○ Do you measure these effects that the rich content has on the users? ○ How do you measure these effects?

● What kind of engagement do you see from the users when using rich content?

● What negative effects do you see from using rich content?

● How can rich content help with conveying the main message/point of the news story? ○ What are the reasons that it helps in this regard?

● What research do you have regarding how rich content can help convey the main message of the story?

● Do you see in your work that rich content helps reach a bigger audience? ○ How can you see that? Any methods you use to measure? / Why doesn’t it help?

● What are the difficulties in using rich content in news stories today? ○ What could make it easier to create rich content? ○ Would you use rich content in more stories if it was easier to create? ○ What are the advantages with using rich content?

● Is there anything else you would like to share?

● Are there any questions you would like to ask?

TRITA -EECS-EX-2020:322