New Analytical Models for determining Text Comprehensibility Standards in Mass-Media Communication
Journal Title: In Medias Res - Year 2018, Vol 7, Issue 12
Abstract
In this paper we are focused on the comprehensibility of mass-media texts within the theoretical context of media literacy and media competence, in order to determine the elements of standards for their comprehensibility. Our comparative analysis of texts (primarily political news reports) from Croatian national daily newspapers confirmed the hypothesis about their partial incomprehensibility and considerable variation in comprehensibility between different media outlets. We analysed 11 different categories: the amount of text in a sentence, word length, symbol length, average sentence length, average word length in syllables, lexical density, lexical redundancy, the density of entities, the complexity of words by their syllable length and frequency, and measures based on the estimated complexity of words in the newspaper corpus. By observing groups of individuals with different age, level of education, and social background, we found significant differences in their perception and understanding of mass-media texts, depending on their age and education. This leads us to conclude that standards for comprehensibility need to be determined by taking into account the previously obtained research findings, while continuing work to establish all relevant factors of the perception of media text, as well as ways in which they affect its comprehensibility. We selected those measures that are best suited for automated assessment of comprehensibility of newspaper reports in the Croatian language by pairing comprehensibility assessments from the consumers of media with the results of text complexity computer analysis. By using selected automated measures of text readability and the human perception of text readability, we attempted to make a contribution to determining the elements of text readability standards, as the minimum requirement for text readability.
Authors and Affiliations
Artur Šilić, Slobodan Hadžić
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP469061
- DOI -
- Views 63
- Downloads 0
Media Ecology
Does the trend in which electronic media are gradually becoming extension of human body have to move towards full enslavement of a human and his personality, or the same human will unpredictably, with the aid of his pers...
“Intuitive Geometry” in Spatial Sculpture Installation “Dance of Life”
Talking about the process of emergence and the symbolic significance of the sculpture installation „Dance of Life“, it will try to present the idea of intuitive geometry that has made the sculptural installation itself....
The Age of World Film: Guy Debord and the defence of the Notion of The Society of the Spectacle
In this paper, the author will offer a new and specofoc reading of the contemporary media society, the society as it is understood by some of the most prominent thinkers of the media-economy like Jonathan Beller and Jina...
Final Death of the Author: Creativity in the Age of Information Society
If we assume that creativity is a result of the inner dialogue of creative individual (author), during which he creates an improbable combination of elements (i.e. new information), how can we comprehend creativity today...
Cinematographic Simulacra
Reality provokes and inspires us to create new worlds. Parallel universes are designed by our imaginative potential. This paper aims to show how film proves to be a perfect medium to support the spectacle of entertainmen...