Reading News Research Articles

Towards accessible news reading design in virtual reality for low vision

Low-vision conditions resulting in partial loss of the central visual field strongly affect patients’ daily tasks and routines, and none more prominently than the ability to access text. Though vision aids such as magnifiers, digital screens, and text-to-speech devices can improve overall accessibility to text, news media, which is non-linear and has complex and volatile formatting, is still inaccessible, barring low-vision patients from easy access to essential news content. This position paper proposes virtual reality as a promising solution towards accessible and enjoyable news reading for low vision. We first provide an extensive review into existing research on low-vision reading technologies and visual accessibility solutions for modern news media. From previous research and studies, we then conduct an analysis into the advantages of virtual reality for low-vision reading and propose comprehensive guidelines for visual accessibility design in virtual reality, with a focus on reading. This is coupled with a hands-on survey of eight reading applications in virtual reality to evaluate how accessibility design is currently implemented in existing products. Finally, we present an open toolbox using browser-based graphics (WebGL) that implements the design principles from our study. A proof-of-concept is created using this toolbox to demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal with modern virtual reality technology.

PERANCANGAN APLIKASI PENGOLAHAN BERITA (PETA) PADA DINAS KOMUNIKASI DAN INFORMATIKA JAKARTA UTARA

The Rapid development of information technology has brought the world into a new era that is faster than ever imagined. With the development of technology in the field of information technology today is increasingly being used by many people who make it easy for the community. Many activities carried out only in a limited scope can now be done in a very broad scope, even worldwide ... such as the many uses of gadgets and smartphones makes people do things easily quickly and instantly. In this case the news processing application that serves to provide convenience in the process of managing, sending and reading news from the community for the community. News processing application is expected to be able to provide accurate, reliable and fast information through information technology to the wider community and can invite the participation of the public to participate in sending the most actual news. So that it can be helped with this website. The research method used in this application research is the method of data collection. As for developing the application itself using Code Igniter. Code Igniter is one of the frameworks used by the author to build information systems and is accompanied by using a database that is adjusted to the needs in the system and application design process that is used today

ANALISIS KELAYAKAN PENULISAN BERITA PADA PORTAL BERITA ISLAM ONLINE PANCARAN.NET

This research analyzed the news quality on an Islamic online news portal in Solo, thepancaran.net, and the concern about the quality of Islamic online media in Solo became the reason for this research. This is a descriptive research using qualitative approach., andthe research data analysis used descriptive analysis. The process was carried out since the data were collected;therefore, researchers had started the data analysis process on the field until the research was complete. The analysis usedparameters, whether the news hadfulfilled the elements of news,and thus the news could be said to be in good quality, less quality, or not worthy of publication due to the code of ethics violation. These elements were news value, 5W + 1H systematic, Inverted Pyramid Systematics, News Headlines, News Lead, News Content, News Quotations, and Journalistic Code of Ethics. In the analysis, there were 7 elements fulfilled in the news onpancaran.net, therefore if there was one element that had not been fulfilled, then the news on pancaran.net could be said to be in good quality, sinceit would have been good if these 7 elements had been fulfilled. However, there was one element that was not fulfilled, which was the element of the journalistic code of ethics. It was found on this research that the pancaran.netwebsite was not recommended for online news readers in Solo due to violations of the journalistic code of ethics found in the news.

Teaching the 21st Century Skills (4Cs) in English Literacy Activities

This study aimed to investigate the kinds of 21st century skills (4Cs) in English literacy activities. The design of this research was descriptive qualitative. The subjects of this research were 120 students and 3 teachers in this school. The techniques of data collection were observation, interview, note taking, document analysis and documentation. The finding showed that there were five English literacy activities implemented in this school namely, reading response journal, news reading program, guiding object commentary, travel itinerary writing and cooperative literacy program. In the implementation of those English literacy activities, the teachers taught the 21st century skills (4Cs). In reading response journal, the 21st century skills taught were critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills. In news reading program and cooperative literacy program, all of those 21st century skills (4Cs) were taught. In, guiding object commentary, there were three 21st century skills were taught namely critical thinking, creativity and communication skills. At last, there were three skills were taught in travel itinerary writing namely critical thinking, collaboration and creativity skills. In teaching the 21st century skills, the teachers still had challenges in teaching critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills. There was no challenge in teaching creativity skill in English literacy activities. This research was expected to be beneficial for the policymaker, schools, and teachers who had big effort in implementing effective literacy program in schools. Those activities and ways of teaching the 21st century skills could be adopted in order to enhance the level of literacy program.

Investigation of University Students' in-Class Smartphones Usage with Association Rules

This study aimed to investigate the university students' usage of smartphones in-class and reveal the relationships among the frequency of use, the purpose of use, reasons for the smartphone using in course, and demographic variables (gender and class). To achieve this aim, we used the correlational survey model. The study sample was selected from the students studying in an Education Faculty of a University in the east of Turkey in the spring semester of 2019-2020 academic year. The sample determined by the snowball sampling method consisted of a total of 577 students. The survey technique was used to collect data. The descriptive and relation analysis were used in the analysis of the data. Frequency and percentage calculations were made for descriptive analysis. For relational analysis, the association rule, one of the data mining methods, was used. It has been revealed that most of the students use their smartphones occasionally and mostly in messages, to do research and connect to social networks. It was observed that the main reasons that motivated students to use their smartphones in the courses were doing research about the course and using them in emergencies. Besides, students gave close answers about the effect of smartphone use on academic performance, and most of the students stated that they did not have difficulty focusing when using smartphones in the courses. Some students also stated that they did not use the phone as it distracted them, and it was forbidden to use it in the course. Results revealed that the boring course, negative attitudes towards the lecturer, and the course cause students to message and connect to social media. It was concluded that the occasional use of smartphones in the courses in cases of emergency and messaging does not affect students' academic performance and does not cause any problems in focusing on the course. Besides, most people who use their smartphones for researching, reading news, and messaging in the courses stated that they use their smartphones for educational purposes. Some suggestions were developed at the end of the study based on the results.

Investigation of University Students' in-Class Smartphones Usage with Association Rules

This study aimed to investigate the university students' usage of smartphones in-class and reveal the relationships among the frequency of use, the purpose of use, reasons for the smartphone using in course, and demographic variables (gender and class). To achieve this aim, we used the correlational survey model. The study sample was selected from the students studying in an Education Faculty of a University in the east of Turkey in the spring semester of 2019-2020 academic year. The sample determined by the snowball sampling method consisted of a total of 577 students. The survey technique was used to collect data. The descriptive and relation analysis were used in the analysis of the data. Frequency and percentage calculations were made for descriptive analysis. For relational analysis, the association rule, one of the data mining methods, was used. It has been revealed that most of the students use their smartphones occasionally and mostly in messages, to do research and connect to social networks. It was observed that the main reasons that motivated students to use their smartphones in the courses were doing research about the course and using them in emergencies. Besides, students gave close answers about the effect of smartphone use on academic performance, and most of the students stated that they did not have difficulty focusing when using smartphones in the courses. Some students also stated that they did not use the phone as it distracted them, and it was forbidden to use it in the course. Results revealed that the boring course, negative attitudes towards the lecturer, and the course cause students to message and connect to social media. It was concluded that the occasional use of smartphones in the courses in cases of emergency and messaging does not affect students' academic performance and does not cause any problems in focusing on the course. Besides, most people who use their smartphones for researching, reading news, and messaging in the courses stated that they use their smartphones for educational purposes. Some suggestions were developed at the end of the study based on the results.

PERSEPSI BADAN OTONOM PELAJAR ISLAM INDONESIA (BO PII) WATI SUMSEL TERHADAP BERITA CROSSHIJABERS CNNINDONESIA.COM

This thesis is the result of research describing how the perception of Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati on crosshijabers news on Cnnindonesia.com. The presence of crosshijabers or men dressed in syar'i is considered unsettling because it can gives a bad stigma for Muslim women. Therefore, researchers are interested in raising the title "Perception of the Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati Sumsel Against Crosshijabers news at Cnnindonesia.com" as research material. This research aims to answer the question of how the perception of the Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati of crosshijabers news on Cnnindonesia.com and the factors that influence it. The research methodology used is a qualitative approach. Data collection was carried out by direct interviews with informants in this study, namely the management of Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati Sumsel. The results showed that the administrators of the Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati Sumsel had two forms of response that emerged, there are positive and negative responses. Factors that influence the perception of Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati on crosshijabers news on Cnnindonesia.com include the attention stage, and also the interpretation which includes the use of news, the level of news reading satisfaction, and also experience. The following are suggestions that the author proposes: For people who are media users to be wiser in receiving news. For the media, depth is needed in following up this phenomenon completely so that this phenomenon does not occur again. Keywords: Perception, Indonesian Badan Otonom Pelajar Islam Indonesia (BO PII) Wati, News, Crosshijabers,

An Investigation of Cyberloafing in a Large-Scale Technology Organization From the Perspective of the Theory of Interpersonal Behavior

Employees in many organizations often spend time with information and communication technologies and engage in personal business instead of spending their time fully on work-related tasks. For some, such activities constitute inefficient use of time because they prevent employees from completing the tasks that they are responsible. For some others, cyberloafing behaviors help employees to reduce their stress and increase their efficiency. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of some organizational and individual variables with cyberloafing in the context of Interpersonal Behavior Theory. This mixed research study was designed with an explanatory approach. Quantitative data was collected from 240 employees; then by considering the quantitative data, interview questions were prepared and the qualitative data collection process was completed with 20 participants. According to the results; the perceptions of employees about the penalties and benefits that may emerge in case of cyberloafing affect their attitudes towards cyberloafing positively. Positive emotions for cyberloafing and social factors have a positive effect on cyberloafing intention. Social factors have a positive relationship with roles, rules and self-concept. Habits and intention increase employees’ cyberloafing behaviors. The most frequent cyberloafing behaviors are messaging and reading news. The implications of the results are discussed.

Using Production-Oriented Approach in Business English Courses: Perceptions of China’s English-Major and Non-English-Major Undergraduates

In light of pedagogical innovation, this study reports a two-stage survey with 172 participants from English-major and non-English-major programs on their needs of production-oriented approach and perceptions of effective implementation strategies in business English courses at a Chinese university. The results of the study suggest that while the two student groups used different learning methods, both valued communication with native speakers. While the two groups had different needs in business English reading, writing, and speaking activities, they also preferred listening to business news broadcasts. The two groups liked learning in case studies and case-based methodology. Based on the needs, a production-oriented teaching procedure is designed. For teaching activities, the students preferred simulation and role-play. As to their favorite teaching and learning materials, English-majors mentioned English news reading and videos, whereas non-English-majors liked theme-based reading materials. For curriculum adaptation and post-course practice, they suggested using communicative activities and more recent cases. The majority of the groups considered the teaching activities, materials, and activities as effective. Based on the different needs and perceptions, effective and tailored implementation strategies for a production-oriented approach in business English courses for the two student groups at this Chinese university context are suggested. Informed by production-oriented pedagogical theories, the results of the study may have significant implications for business English teaching reform and theoretical development in Chinese universities as well as other cultural and education settings in further innovating and refining the teaching and learning process.

When Fear Leads Towards Preventive Measures: A Study of Newspapers’ Coverage and Public Perception on COVID-19 Pandemic

This research intends to examine and analyze the coverage of COVID-19 pandemic in leading Urdu newspapers of Pakistan and its effects on readers. For this purpose, this study applied quantitative content analysis and survey method. News stories (n=690) of COVID-19 were selected randomly from two newspapers, daily Jang and daily Express to find out the elements of fear, hope, awareness and precautions, while news readers and viewers were selected as respondents (n=455) to know the fear level and preventive measures taken by the news audience. The results found that newspapers paid attention to the crisis in terms of risk perception, and public opted preventive measures after news exposure. Survey result shows that television viewers have greater fear of COVID-19 than the social media users and newspapers readers. It further shows that females have more fear of COVID-19 than males, and they are taking more precautionary measures. Moreover, result shows that fear of COVID-19 is a significant predictor of precautionary behaviour for males than females. Limitations and future directions are discussed in details

Towards a Sustainable News Business: Understanding Readers’ Perceptions of Algorithm-Generated News Based on Cultural Conditioning

The use of algorithms is beginning to replace human activities in the news business, and the presence of this technique will only continue to grow. The ways in which public news readers perceive the quality of news articles written by algorithms and how this perception differs based on cultural conditioning remain issues of debate. Informed by the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) and the similarity-attraction theory, we attempted to answer these questions by conducting a three-way one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test with a 2 (author: algorithm vs. human journalist) × 2 (media: traditional media vs. online media) × 2 (cultural background: the US vs. South Korea) between-subjects experiment (N = 360). Our findings revealed that participants perceived the quality of news articles written by algorithms to be higher than those written by human journalists. We also found that when news consumption occurs online, algorithm-generated news tends to be rated higher than human-written news in terms of quality perception. Further, we identified a three-way interaction effect of media types, authors, and cultural backgrounds on the quality perception of news articles. As, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to theoretically examine how news readers perceive algorithm-generated news from a cultural point of view, our research findings may hold important theoretical and practical implications.

“Why attacking the Bureau of Industry and Commerce?”: news value flow to news comments on Chinese social media

Comments on social media provide a suitable site to view text-reader relations from the perspective of news reading. This article interrogates readers’ evaluative responses to Weibo shared news in China. The study, drawing upon Discursive News Values Analysis and appraisal, first identifies the news values of Eliteness, Personalization, Negativity and Positivity in a news story about car quality sourced from the Weibo network of People’s Daily. Then the following 1027 comments, including Chinese characters and emojis, are investigated by using a mixed-methods approach. The corpus analysis shows that business Eliteness (the Mercedes dealership) and Personalization (the buyer) are convergently valued news actors, while readers evaluate authoritative Eliteness (the Bureau) in an unexpected way. Close examination of the appraisal devices in the comments uncovers a divergence between negative judgment toward Eliteness and positive affect/judgment for Personalization. Emojis play an important role in activating attitudes through the interplay with language. In commentary journalism, the readers’ response can influence news value decisions when there is a mismatch between the news values promoted by news organizations and the values that readers perceive as newsworthy.

Smartphone usage among older adults

Problematic smartphone usage, associated with impaired daily functioning, has gained increased attention among researchers. However, extant research is focusing on adolescents and younger adults. This paper investigates smartphone usage among older adults, of which less is known. To do so, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 154 smartphone users (60+ years) in Norway using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We examined the contributing roles of loneliness, habit, social influence, emotional gain, fear of missing out, self-control, and problematic smartphone usage. We further investigated how older adults engage with their smartphones. Our findings suggest that older adults use smartphones for various social and non-social reasons and that social media and news reading are the most common use areas. Furthermore, we found a low prevalence of problematic smartphone usage among older adults. Whereas social influence and habit were strong predictors of smartphone usage among older adults, loneliness was not. Fear of missing out was not prevalent among older adults. As we expected, higher self-control was associated with lower problematic smartphone use. Finally, we discuss the contributions and implications of our findings.

AN INVESTIGATION OF AGNEZ MO’S CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT ON ONLINE NEWS TEXT

Along with the growth of social media, information is increasingly easy to be obtained and accessed. When receiving information, social media users tend to take information for granted without realizing false arguments. This descriptive qualitative study with critical discourse analysis design is aimed to provoke the readers of the online news to analyze the discourse redaction used by the media. Thus, they might understand the real point inside the news. This study centers on analyzing the news reduction of Liputan6.com about Agnez Mo controversial statement entitled “Agnez Mo dan 6 Reaksinya Soal Kontroversi Tak Punya Darah Indonesia” . Further, van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis framework centered on text structure like macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure was employed. The results of this study indicated that liputan6.com took a side on Agnez Mo. It can be seen from the news' redaction in which the writer attempts to attract people empathy and believe on Agnez that she is the victim on this issue.

Media behavior of youth in the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine

The COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine measures have transformed the media agenda. The aim of the study is to identify the behavioral characteristics of the youth news audience, which is formed in the context of COVID-19. To solve research tasks, from March 24 to April 5, 2020, an intelligence survey of young Ukrainians as news readers was conducted. 364 respondents aged from 18 to 29, living in different regions of Ukraine, answered the questions of the Google questionnaire. The results of the survey are qualitative in nature and highlight the trends that exist in the youth audience. According to the data, the topic of coronavirus has become a priority for 82% of respondents. Phobias of young respondents increased: more than 70% stated they were worried and afraid. The alarm response to the pandemic has prompted many media consumers (46%) to turn to more information sources than usual. On the other hand, some media consumers have reduced their contact with the media, which is a typical protective reaction. Uncertainty, suspicion, and anxiety shake the confidence of the youth audience in public institutions and the media. The study showed the emergence of new challenges for media companies. The media should anticipate the consequences of disseminating information, fake news, and adjust content strategies accordingly: compliance with journalistic standards, responsible dissemination of news, fact-checking.

A study of fake news reading and annotating in social media context

ABSTRACT The online spreading of fake news is a major issue threatening entire societies. Much of this spreading is enabled by new media formats, namely social networks and online media sites. Researchers and practitioners have been trying to answer this by characterising the fake news and devising automated methods for detecting them. The detection methods had so far only limited success, mostly due to the complexity of the news content and context and lack of properly annotated datasets. One possible way to boost the efficiency of automated misinformation detection methods is to imitate the detection work of humans. It is also important to understand the news consumption behaviour of online users. In this paper, we present an eye-tracking study, in which we let 44 lay participants to casually read through a social media feed containing posts with news articles, some of which were fake. In a second run, we asked the participants to decide on the truthfulness of these articles. We also describe a follow-up qualitative study with a similar scenario but this time with seven expert fake news annotators. We present the description of both studies, characteristics of the resulting dataset (which we hereby publish) and several findings.

THE EFFECT OF OUT-OF-CLASS READING TASKS ON DEVELOPING EFL WRITING SKILLS

This study aims at investigating the relationship between out-of-class reading activities and writing in English as a foreign language. A quasi-experimental pre-test- post-test research design without a control group was used to assess the effect of reading a novel and reading news as out-of-class reading activities on writing achievement. The research results were triangulated with open-ended questions asking participant views about their out-of-class reading tasks. 40 students of an ELT Department at a Turkish university participated in the study. The students were divided randomly into two groups and group A was asked to read a novel while group B was asked to read news as out-of-class reading tasks, for a month. The participants’ writing achievements were tested through two writing tasks, as a pre-test and post-test, in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, mechanics and total scores. The pre-test and post-test scores did not display statistically significant differences between the A and B groups either in total scores or in scores of specific dimensions of the assessment. The participants in group A displayed statistically significant improvement in terms of organization, vocabulary, and language use while the participants in group B demonstrated improvement in content, organization, vocabulary, and language use. The qualitative data verified the quantitative findings, and provided views about different features of the tasks. Some suggestions for further research on the role of various factors that affect the development of writing skills, and the relationship among different language skills are provided.
 
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Cultural Participation and Subjective Well-Being of Indigenous in Latin America

In general populations, to several scholars, cultural participation (i.e., participation in cultural and artistic activities) contributes to subjective well-being. Nevertheless, although the mentioned association in Indigenous has been suggested to be related to health, general well-being, and cultural identity, it has been usually left aside in research. Therefore, this manuscript aims to explore the connection between cultural participation and subjective well-being of Indigenous individuals in the context of Latin America. Using the 2013 Latinobarometer dataset (n = 3337), an ordinal regression analysis was run. Results suggest that, reading books, reading news, attending theater, and visiting heritage places show a positive association with life satisfaction (a dimension of subjective well-being); while attending concerts and participating in community celebrations do not report one. These outcomes suggest that participation in cultural and artistic activities can be related to individual and community well-being of Indigenous, and, in consequence, to subjective well-being. Besides, they indicate the need for adequate cultural policies to fulfill the achievement of participation and engagement in cultural life, as well as the review of the activities that potentially bring access to the cultural rights of Indigenous populations.

Entropy feature and peak-means clustering based slowly moving object detection in head and shoulder video sequences

With the increase in demand for video conferencing and IOT applications, efficient video coding standards are necessary. The performance of MPEG-4 coding scheme depends on the efficiency of the video object plane (VOP) generation methods. In head and shoulder video, such as news reading, video conferencing video sequences, the object has a very little movement in between two consecutive frames. Therefore, traditional segmentation methods could not extract the complete VOP efficiently. In this paper, we propose an efficient spatiotemporal segmentation method to extract the moving object for the generation of VOP in head and shoulder video sequences. First, a motion map of the object at each frame is generated based on the entropy of the temporal change of each pixel. Secondly, each frame is spatially segmented based on peak-means clustering approach. Finally, both motion map and spatial segmentation information are fused to extract the complete shape of the slow moving object. Experimental outcome depicts that the proposed method has highest detection accuracy with average intersection of union (IOU) score of 94.32% per frame and F1 measure of 97.75% per frame.

A complex systems perspective of news recommender systems: Guiding emergent outcomes with feedback models.

Algorithms are increasingly making decisions regarding what news articles should be shown to online users. In recent times, unhealthy outcomes from these systems have been highlighted including their vulnerability to amplifying small differences and offering less choice to readers. In this paper we present and study a new class of feedback models that exhibit a variety of self-organizing behaviors. In addition to showing important emergent properties, our model generalizes the popular “top-N news recommender systems” in a manner that provides media managers a mechanism to guide the emergent outcomes to mitigate potentially unhealthy outcomes driven by the self-organizing dynamics. We use complex adaptive systems framework to model the popularity evolution of news articles. In particular, we use agent-based simulation to model a reader’s behavior at the microscopic level and study the impact of various simulation hyperparameters on overall emergent phenomena. This simulation exercise enables us to show how the feedback model can be used as an alternative recommender to conventional top-N systems. Finally, we present a design framework for multi-objective evolutionary optimization that enables recommendation systems to co-evolve with the changing online news readership landscape.