If the computer is to become the main medium for information flowing into the nation's households, it is not yet as easy to use as a newspaper. Predictions that the print media will soon be replaced by digital information flowing into home computers and interactive television sets via telephone and cable lines may prove to be premature. "Such predictions ignore the fact that some highly desirable qualities of printed matter may never be satisfactorily duplicated or replaced by electronic displays. Nobody wants to cuddle up to a CRT screen" (Ernst 1989, 42). Print still has many advantages over video display terminals. Computer screens can be difficult, expensive and even harmful to read. And, as of now, they lack portability. On the other hand, computers do have advantages over print. No one can interact with a newspaper, search easily for related or archived articles or use it to communicate with other people.
In his 1989 book, Electronic-Print Competition, Martin Ernst outlined what improvements would be needed before electronic publishing would capture major print markets. Some of these improvements were physical convenience, convenience in operations, strong aesthetic values, familiar style, high visual quality, easy underlining and annotation, confidence in format, no equipment or training costs (free libraries and advertising support), a wide range and variety of available material, high visual quality, variability of presentation size, control of information layout and presentation features, control of substance presented and the ability to manipulate the material (1989, 70-71). Anyone who has used an on-line service knows few of these improvements have been made.
Roger Fidler, director of Knight-Ridder's Information Design Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where new media technologies are being explored, described the general feeling of acquiring information from the on-line medium in a . "keynote speech presented at the Interactive Newspapers '95 Conference in Dallas, Texas.
"Today's on-line customers may be more computer savvy than they were 10 years ago; and today's interactive services may be somewhat more user-friendly; but, no matter what the technologists and market researchers may tell us, on-line publications are still uncompelling, frustrating and time- consuming to use" (Fidler 1995).
Reading from a computer screen is generally not much fun, but particularly not for people who enjoy newspapers. Andy Beckett, in an article for the British newspaper, The Independent, described reading the Mercury Center, an on-line version of California's San Jose Mercury News.
"But the actual experience of reading the Center is less impressive:
scrolling through 12 lines of monotonous type (no pictures) per screen, it is like looking at a newsletter through the lid of a cardboard box. And browsing through the Center takes time: tiny, accumulating, irritating slivers of it, watching a harlequined cylinder roll across the screen as the program moves from index to index" (1994, 6).
A computer screen can typically hold about 800 characters, less than half of what can be printed on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper and less than three percent of what can fit on a newspaper page (O'Neal 1991, 78). A recent study conducted by the research team of Clark Martire & Bartolomeo, Inc. found that most people will not spend 25 minutes reading news and features from a computer screen the way they will from a newspaper (Martire 1995, 56).
Due to their many qualities that computer technology has not yet matched, newspapers and magazines are still the primary media by which the nation gets its news. In Electronic-Print Competition, Ernst outlined the advantages of print relative to the computer, including these aspects: physical adaptability to the user; feel and familiarity and attachment to format; a range of display sizes; high portability; no need for a 'reading' device; no need for a power source; no start-up, 'booting' or 'device skills'; easy browsing and annotation; long life of materials; no obsolescence of devices, software or files; no incompatibilities among products; massive supplies and variety of materials; a strong infrastructure and control of sources; legal status; high quality; no 'reading' device cost; no user training costs; and advertising revenues which reduce user costs (1989, 36).
To many Americans, there is nothing finer than spreading the morning paper out on the kitchen table to browse, read a few articles and check out the comics and the horoscope. If nothing else, the newspaper is simply enjoyable. "Computers are a source of pleasure for many people. Playing games, chatting, solving problems, all have their aficionados. However, when it comes to news and features, a newspaper is often an end in itself, especially for regular readers. Computers are more often simply a means to get information" (Martire 1995, 56).
Ink on paper is simply more readable than dots on a screen. Print is the dominant medium for text, art and most situations where high visual quality, familiarity, comfort and ease of handling and use are important (Ernst 1989, 2). Long textual articles, such as those found in newspapers and magazines, are easier, more comfortable and more pleasurable to read in print.
A major disadvantage for the computer medium is that, compared to a newspaper, a computer lacks portability. Users are confined to wherever the computer workstation happens to be. Print is simply more convenient. "The businessman can fold the newspaper under his arm on his way out the door, read it on the bus to work, and even carry it into the bathroom -- tasks which would be difficult and quite cumbersome even with a small lap-top computer" (O'Neal 1991, 76). According to the study by Clark Martire & Bartolomeo, lack of computer portability is directly connected to another problem: computers are anti-social. "While you can communicate with other people in cyberspace, you can't communicate with your spouse over the breakfast table or after dinner while you read the sports pages. Computers are not easily shared. Using a computer is an individual enterprise" (Martire 1995, 56).
An interesting fact about print, particularly for older readers, is that it is trusted. It is the medium that many have been relying on all their lives to bring them the news of the world. "Print media tend to be perceived as more authoritative among older groups in part because the latter grew up during what might be called the golden age of newspapers and mass circulation magazines" (Brody 1990, 56).
For the information consumer, print is cheap. Even a computer-mediated information junkie who has no fear of the technology and no qualms about perusing a screen, may be stopped by the prohibitive costs of on-line information. People are not used to having to pay a lot for their news (O'Neal 1991, 61). A 1994 poll by Opinion Search Inc., a Canadian marketing and research firm specializing in information technology and telecommunication, found 83 percent of businesses and 67 percent of households were willing to pay 50 cents per issue of a news medium. Those numbers dropped to 53 percent and 34 percent respectively for a $1.50 price tag and went down to 23 percent and 16 percent for a $3 issue (Ottawa Citizen 1994, 8).
Most of the commercial on-line services like America Online and Prodigy charge a monthly subscription rate of around $15. But the real expense comes from the charges for connect time, which tend to add up fast.
"The average person, J Individual, has an income. How much of J Individual's income is going to be spent on computer connectivity? does $120 a month sound reasonable? Well, you may find that a bit too steep for your pocketbook, but the brutal fact is that $120 is a 'reasonable' monthly amount. The major on-line services have a monthly service charge of approximately $15. .... But don't overlook the average per-hour connection rate of $3 (which can skyrocket upwards of $10 depending on your modem speed and service)" (Kadi 1995, 57)
Connecting to the Internet can be just as expensive. Colorado SuperNet, a commercial Internet provider for the Denver metro area, charges $15 per month plus $3 per hour for connect time between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., $2 per hour between 8 p.m. and midnight, and $1 per hour from midnight to 8 a.m. One service, The Source, was found to cost 100 times as much as a newspaper in terms of the quantity of information supplied (O'Neal 1991, 59).
One strategy is to connect, find what you want and get out, but this is not always easy, due to the addictive lure of the medium. "It is all too easy to spend a significant amount of time on-line following up something found through serendipity. Users may access on-line systems seeking specific information, but they often stumble on something else of interest (perhaps peripheral to their original question). They branch off to follow that train of thought, all the while continuing to use the on-line system and losing track of time (and costs!)" (Hawkins 1994, 117). Not surprisingly, the cost of these services makes them more suitable and affordable for businesses than households, and a business can view the information as a return on investment (O'Neal 1991, 61).
The connect-time method of charging currently pervades the industry but may be on the decline as users demand flat-rate pricing (Hawkins 1994, 117). If the industry concedes to these demands, more people will be able to afford these services and the business will grow (Hawkins 1994, 117). "Only when this level of pricing is reached will
information truly become a mass market commodity, with the consequent growth rates" (Hawkins 1994, 117). A model for this strategy can be found with Prodigy, a commercial service that employs advertising like the print media and charges subscribers a monthly fee but no charges for connect time. "Part of Prodigy's high initial subscribership can be attributed to the fact that the service is supported by advertisers, reducing the realized consumer cost" (O'Neal 1991, 59). Until such time as the other services bring their costs down, it will be much cheaper to have the neighbor kid throw a newspaper onto the porch in the morning.
Another barrier to the acceptance of the computer medium relates to supply and demand. Just because technology is available doesn't mean the public will use it. Much of what is offered by the on-line services is the same information found in the newspaper (O'Neal 1991, 68). And, although on-line services can offer "real-time" up to the minute news that would not ordinarily be found until the morning paper hit the stands, few people see a need to spend extra money to have this benefit at home (O'Neal 1991, 70). The print medium is deeply ingrained in our culture. "Perhaps the most difficult job of the industry is to alter a very conventional and fundamental habit of the population: from reading printed paper to reading from a computer or TV screen" (O'Neal 1991, 74).
Even the physiology of the human eye makes reading video display terminals (VDTs) difficult. When a person looks at a computer screen his or her eyes watch two different things: the material or images on the screen and the process of constructing those images (Valauskas 1994, 44). The screen actually flickers almost imperceptibly as it constructs the images, distracting parts of the eyes, the peripheral receptors, away from those images. For this reason, errors noticed on paper are often passed over on the screen. This is why so many people prefer to print out their word processing before making corrections (Valauskas 1994, 44). Studies indicate that computer users don't see as much as 40 percent of a screen's contents, and tend to read the screen 25 to 30 percent slower than they would read print (Valauskas 1994, 44).
The worst hazards of the print media are paper cuts and ink on the fingers. Computers, on the other hand, have the potential to do serious damage. "The major occupational injuries and diseases of the 1990s will be suffered by those who spend much of their working lives -- and perhaps their leisure hours as well -- at a keyboard" (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 1).
A VDT acts like a magnet, causing particles and dust in the air to accumulate on and around computer screens. Some of these particles inevitably get in the eyes of computer users. Then buildup on screens makes them even harder to read and further stresses the eyes (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 22). The flicker of the screen, which occurs about 60 times per second, can cause eyestrain, headaches, nausea, fatigue and stress, particularly with older deteriorating monitors (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 30). Furthermore, eye stress can be caused by improper lighting that produces too much glare on the screen (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 26). Some research indicates that VDT screens may cause a deterioration of the ability of the eyes to focus (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 31).
Computer-related health problems aren't limited to the eyes. The way a person sits at a terminal, if his or her posture is not correct, can cause headaches and damage to muscles, tendons and joints in the neck and shoulders (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 42). "It takes an enormously powerful muscle structure from the shoulders through the neck, with an appropriate leverage design, to hold a comparatively small head in a forwardly levering position for any significant time." (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 15).
A computer-related health problem that has received a great deal of media coverage lately is carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition caused by stress to the hands and wrists from frequent repeated actions on a keyboard for long periods (Harwin and Haynes 1991, 48). Computer use, it seems, can be very hazardous to a person's health.
And yet, there are advantages to the computer medium. A 1994 survey found that 25 percent of personal computer owners dial into bulletin board systems (BBS), a type of on-line service that allows users to read and post electronic messages on a variety of different topics (Taylor 1994, 137). People like the two-way communication that computers allow (Taylor 1994, 137). "One advantage on-line services have over newspapers is they're offering users an opportunity to communicate: with each other, with experts, with celebrities. Despite letters to the editor, action lines and other such features, newspapers offer essentially a one-way flow of communication" (Martire 19915, 56). BBSs are getting more and more popular as computers gradually permeate the American household. "Local bulletin boards will be as popular as local talk radio. Can you think of a mayor or county commissioner who will not want his own bulletin board? Local celebrities will answer questions on-line" (Easterly 1993, 44).
An analogy can be made to the way the country is already on-line via the telephone. People have a basic need to communicate as evidenced by the pervasive use of that medium (Kainz 1994c, E3). In fact, one survey found a positive correlation between the size of the phone bill of a business or residence, and the likelihood for a subscription to on-line services (Ottawa Citizen 1994, 8).
The on-line medium also has an advantage over print when timeliness is a factor. Up-to-the-minute information can be conveyed instantly by computer where the same information would be delayed until the next edition of a newspaper. This is beneficial for situations such as financial market dealings or emergencies (Ernst 1989, 15).
As college students have known for years, the on-line medium is better-suited for searching than print. On-line databases are advantageous "when coverage is critical. For exhaustive searches, electronic systems offer a powerful combination of speed, thoroughness, low error rates, compactness of storage, and unmatchable cross-indexing capabilities (extending to full text indexing)" (Ernst 1989, 15).
Some newspapers have on-line counterparts containing many more wire service and other related stories than the print version. In some cases the paper's "morgue" of archives and back issues is made available on-line for searching. The San Jose Mercury News annotates its stories with icons indicating that more information is available in : The Mercury Center, the paper's on-line counterpart (Beckett 1994, 6).
Print, in contrast, is permanent. It "has its advantages almost entirely in the format area; its competitive strengths, not surprisingly, are concentrated on information materials that make few demands for user manipulation of substance or format" (Ernst 1989, 36). Books, magazines and newspapers all fit this description.
The advantages of the computer medium were evident in November 1994, when workers at the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner went on strike for 13 days (A Striking 1994, 7). The two papers were still able to get out a product read by tens of thousands of people on the World Wide Web (A Striking 1994, 7). This example illustrates how computers can quickly disseminate massive amounts of information to a large number of people.
However, the manner in which newspapers are read might indicate that the world is ready for the computer medium after all. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies published a book, Eyes on the News, in 1991, in which it documented a study of newspaper reading habits. The study used a special camera mounted on the heads of readers that tracked their eye movements as they read a newspaper. The study did not relate the findings to computer media, but they could be taken to suggest that the nation's readers are more ready than they think for news from a screen. For instance, the print media, as previously discussed, are said to be better suited to text reading than are computers. And yet, the Poynter study found that only 25 percent of the text in newspapers was being looked at or "processed" (Garcia and Stark 1991, 70). Of all the elements processed in newspapers, text was looked at the least, compared with 80 percent of the artwork, 75 percent of the photos, 56 percent of the headlines, 52 percent of the advertising , 31 percent of the news briefs and 29 percent of the cutlines (Garcia and Stark 1991, 70). Of the text that was processed, 30 percent was news, 23 percent was features and 19 percent was sports (Garcia and Stark 1991, 70). If the nation's news readers don't like to read long blocks of text on computer screens, they are not exactly voracious with newspapers either.
There are other similarities between on-line and print news reader behavior. A much earlier study, from 1973, found that 93 percent of newspaper readers had taken some kind of action relating to the paper, such as clipping articles, writing or placing ads, ordering merchandise and discussing news stories with others (Newspaper Ad Bureau 1973, 15). This is further evidence of the tendency to desire communication that has its on-line equivalent in BBSs and e-mail. "In response to direct questioning nearly six out of ten adults report that within the past month they have mentioned an interesting newspaper item to someone else, while about half say that they have shown or read an item aloud to someone" (Newspaper Ad. Bureau 1973, V-1).
Furthermore, people in the "upper socio-economic" groups, like on-line services users, were more likely to be newspaper readers (Newspaper Ad. Bureau 1973, 19).
One study showed that users of the early prototypes of today's on-line services, called videotex and teletext (to be discussed more fully below), displayed similar behaviors to readers of newspapers. A 1979 and 1980 survey of teletext users in England showed that news, sports and TV listings were the most popular teletext elements (Weaver 1983, 91). Those findings were similar to those of numerous newspaper readership studies of the same period where news had the highest readership followed by sports and TV listings (Weaver 1983, 91). And the Poynter institute study, where news and sports were two of the top three categories of processed text, confirms these studies (Garcia and Stark 1991, 70). They all combine to suggest that newspaper readers and computer media users have a lot in common.
The newspaper industry may find its biggest challenge in the next generation of news consumers. Children are abandoning print for computers at a disturbing rate (Edwards 1994). "Young people are the natural constituency for computers for a variety of reasons. They are the most computer-literate, and their special newspaper interests -- classifieds, news briefs, news you can use, sports scores -- are all especially well-suited to on-line services" (Martire 1995, 56). Rolling Stone Media Writer John Katz, in a 1994 National Public Radio Interview, said that young readers are bored with what they perceive as the impotent content of the modern newspaper. "You know, in all these surveys about what is drawing younger readers away from papers and towards cable, you know, you see again and again, they like diversity of opinion, they like ironic, self-mocking humor, they like real writing. They don't mind a good fight. If you look at op-ed pages in newspapers, they're militantly moderate. There's very little real opinion on the left or very little real opinion on the right" (Edwards 1994).
Today's children are tomorrow's consumers, and they will determine from which medium they will get their information. "It is conceivable that once the people who 'grew up with paper' are no longer the 'leaders' of society, then the generations that were 'raised on computers' will gradually adapt to a virtually paperless world" (O'Neal 1991, 76).