Does the medium affect the message? The influence of text representation format on critical thinking

Abstract

The proliferation of digital information resources in recent years challenges consumers with the need to employ critical thinking skills in reading news. This paper suggests an updated perspective to the expression that “the medium is the message” by comparing the ability of high-school and college students to exercise critical thinking skills in reading news in print and digital formats. The most important finding is the better performance of the younger participants (high school students) in reading digital news formats, and the better performance of the college students when reading news in a print format. The findings of this exploratory study are discussed through the lenses of three perspectives: a usability perspective, a cognitive perspective and an information economics perspective in order to stimulate further research that may provide designers, researchers and educators with useful guidelines for designing effective messages in the information age.