Totes Tlkin bout 'TEXT' ..................................LolOLol Jks ;)

-Lecture 3

Text can be anything from tweets and facebook updates to forums and metadata excepts. Its Fast, flexible and allows the consumer to have complete control.  Generally when it comes to media, text is used craftily in short eye catching phrases in order to entice the consumer’s interest.

In this way the method of ‘poynter eye track’ is used.

Eye Tracking has been used for centuries in physiology where the movement of eyes, whilst reading were documented and studied.  Researchers utilized ‘eye tracking’ in the concern of human- computer relations in the early 1990’s, when the boom in technological advances was occurring. In fact one could argue that the great art masters of past periods used just such a strategy… light, shadows, angles, texture etc has been used in painting for centuries to highlight focus points and draw the viewers gaze. In news papers and on PC screens however, researches have found that Text Rules – readers are more often drawn to the left of the page and predominately to the text before the image. This may well be due to the fact that the majority of the population is right handed dominant, looking to the right is a subconscious reflex, where as turning to a dominant attraction in the left field is a conscious action and obviously stimulates more cognitive involvement

For more information and reports on ‘Eye Tracking’- Click Here

  

The Inverted Pyramid

The inverted pyramid of media is a metaphor used to demonstrate how text should be structured.

The most important information, which will correlate to the backbone of the story, is displayed first. This will allow the consumer to receive sufficient information in order to decide whether or not they wish to read the article. As one goes down the inverted pyramid, more in detail information is released.

Popular myth believes, that the ‘Inverted Pyramid’ was brought about during the American civil war were reporters relied on telegraph lines in order to get their stories heard.  The telegraph lines often failed and the reporters developed the concept of relaying the important information first and any additional information later, so that if the lines were to cut out, at least the crucial facts where relayed to the newspapers.

For other Myths involving the Inverted Pyramid- Click here