Postimehe online-väljaande lugemine 12. klassi õpilaste hulgas

Date

2012

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Publisher

Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis “Reading the online-edition of Postimees among the 12th grade students” was to examine the reading of the online-edition of Postimees among 12th grade students. The outcomes were also compared to other theses previously composed at the University of Tartu. In order to obtain answers to the research questions the author used a form of questionnaire, think-aloud method and an interview. The selection of the form of questionnaire consisted of 52 students, of which 26 students study in 12th grade at the Tamme Gymnasium in Tartu and 26 students study in 12th grade at the Gymnasium of Art in Tartu. The selection of observation and interview consisted of ten students who all study in 12th grade at the Kivilinna Gymnasium in Tartu. The age range of all the participants in the research was between 17 to 19 years. As a result of the research it appeared that the 12th grade students read the online-edition of Postimees every day. The online-edition of Postimees is read rather in the evenings because in the morning they are at school where the usage of Internet is limited, but in the evenings they have enough free time to read the news from the Internet. Mostly they stay on the Postimees page up to 15 minutes per one reading; therefore they more likely read the headlines of the news and/or watch the pictures concerning the news, but for a more thorough reading they open the news less. The students of 12th grade prefer to read the news which subject is close to them, such as school, education, studying, the life of young people and humor. They read less about politics, for example, about the politicians, political parties and the president, parliament and government. The attention of a 12th grade student is grasped by news which has an interesting headline and an illustrative picture. The placement of the news is thereby second-rated. The perusal of articles appearing in the online-edition of Postimees is mostly influenced by the length of the story (the shorter, the better), after that how interesting the topic is and an auspicious text. The pointed out data refers clearly to the circumstance that young people read news from the Internet shallowly. The movement pattern of the 12th grade students on the online-edition of the Postimees page is the following: they immediately open the attractive news and also read it immediately, and it is preferred to read the middle wide column rather than the side-columns. The main reason for that is the size of headlines and pictures. Comparing this thesis to the previously composed theses on this topic it can be said that similarities as well as differences were found. All the theses stated that the most important factor in opening the articles is the closeness of the subject, and the task of the picture and the headline is to act as a focus puller not the sole-reason for opening the article. The perusal of articles is influenced by the shortness, how interesting the topic is and how well the text is written, and only the middle big column of the online-edition of Postimees is read, not the side-columns. The differences in the theses emerged in the behavior patterns, because all the observable students did not open the attractive news immediately and also did not immediately read it. It also appeared that some of the people are grasped more by the news which is placed higher on the front page, but there are people who don’t find the placement of the news important at all. Even though the main reasons of choosing of the article, not reading it completely through and the perusal of the articles match, less important reasons can be found which were not mentioned in all the theses, such as the prominent persons, duplications in the text and other community-wise significant subjects. Of course when interpreting the outcomes of the research, into consideration should be taken the circumstance, that the selection of the observation and interview was small - only ten students.

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