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This thesis is an explorative study aimed at the possibility of integrating tilt-based input to improve the reading experience on smartphones. Previous works from the early 2000s have been skeptical towards tilt-based navigation, deeming it unruly and imprecise. To investigate if today’s technology has unlocked new possibilities; two experimental reading methods were designed, created and tested iteratively on 20, respectively 18 participants. The first method is a reassessment of tilt-based auto-scrolling and the second is a novel approach comparable to tilt-based paging. Data from the reading sessions were collected quantitatively in tandem with qualitative data from post-session interviews. The results indicate good potential and a reading performance similar to the standard navigation method. The importance of accommodating people with different reading behaviours was also discussed. / Detta examensarbete utforskar om gyroskopiska interaktioner kan användas för att förbättra läsupplevelsen på mobiltelefoner. Tidigare forskning från det tidiga 2000-talet har varit skeptiska mot gyroskopisk navigation, på grund av dålig precision och stabilitet. För att utforska om dagens teknologi har öppnat nya möjligheter; skapades, designades och testades två experimentella läsmetoder på 20 respektive 18 deltagare. Den första metoden är en återkoppling till tidigare forskning medans den andra utforskar ett nytt sätt som liknar gyroskopisk sidindelning. Data från läs sessionerna samlades i både kvantitativ och kvalitativ form, varav den senare med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten indikerar god potential och en läsprestanda som liknar den standardiserade läsmetoden. Vikten av att tillgodose människors individuella läsningsbeteende blev också diskuterat.

Most South African subtitles are produced and broadcast in English despite the fact that English is the first language of only 8.2% of the entire population (Statistics South Africa, 2004). Therefore, current English subtitles are predominantly received as second language text. This poses questions as to how people perceive these subtitles, and if and how their reading of English second language (L2) subtitles differs from their reading of L1 (non-English) subtitles. In recent years, eye tracking has proven to be a valuable method in observing and measuring the eye movements of people watching and reading subtitles. In order to explain the use of eye tracking and in order to answer the question at hand, this study comprises a literature review and an empirical study. The literature review gives an in-depth account of previous studies that used eye tracking to study reading and elaborates on the parameters used to account for various findings. The two empirical components of this study examined the accessibility and effectiveness of English L2 subtitles by presenting native speakers of Afrikaans and Sesotho with subtitles displayed (a) in their native language, Afrikaans or Sesotho, and (b) in L2 English, while monitoring their eye movements with an SMI iViewX™ Hi-Speed eye tracker and comparing the data with that of English L1 speakers reading English subtitles. Participants were also given static text to read (accompanied by a corresponding comprehension test) in order to see if there was a relation between participants’ first and second language reading of static text and that of subtitling. Additionally, participants were given a questionnaire on their reading behaviour, reading preferences, access to subtitled television programming and reading of subtitles in order to find explanations for occurrences in the data. The initial hypothesis was that there would be a difference in L1 and L2 subtitle reading and attention allocation as measured by key eye-tracking parameters. Using ANOVAs, statistically significant differences were indeed found, but the differences were much more significant for the Sesotho L1 than the Afrikaans L1 speakers. After excluding possible confounding factors that were analysed in attempt to refute this hypothesis, the conclusion was that participants inherently read L1 and L2 subtitles differently. The hypothesis is therefore supported. However, the difference in L1 and L2 subtitle reading was not the only significant finding – the Sesotho L1 speakers’ reading data revealed a greater underlying issue, namely literacy. The problem of low literacy levels can be attributed to the participants’ socioeconomic background and history, and needs to be addressed urgently. Recommendations for future research include that the current study be broadened in terms of scope, sampling size, representativeness and experimental material; that the focus be shifted to the rest of the languages spoken in South Africa for which the users do not have a shared sense of bilingualism and for which the L1 skills and levels of L1 literacy vary; and to further explore the relation between the reading of static text and subtitle reading in order to ensure adequate subtitle reading in terms of proportional attention allocation. However, the issue of low literacy levels will have to be addressed urgently; only then will the South African viewing public be able to gain full access to any form of broadcast communicative material or media, and only then will they be able to benefit from subtitling and all that it offers. / North-West University (South Africa). Vaal Triangle Campus.

Most South African subtitles are produced and broadcast in English despite the fact that English is the first language of only 8.2% of the entire population (Statistics South Africa, 2004). Therefore, current English subtitles are predominantly received as second language text. This poses questions as to how people perceive these subtitles, and if and how their reading of English second language (L2) subtitles differs from their reading of L1 (non-English) subtitles. In recent years, eye tracking has proven to be a valuable method in observing and measuring the eye movements of people watching and reading subtitles. In order to explain the use of eye tracking and in order to answer the question at hand, this study comprises a literature review and an empirical study. The literature review gives an in-depth account of previous studies that used eye tracking to study reading and elaborates on the parameters used to account for various findings. The two empirical components of this study examined the accessibility and effectiveness of English L2 subtitles by presenting native speakers of Afrikaans and Sesotho with subtitles displayed (a) in their native language, Afrikaans or Sesotho, and (b) in L2 English, while monitoring their eye movements with an SMI iViewX™ Hi-Speed eye tracker and comparing the data with that of English L1 speakers reading English subtitles. Participants were also given static text to read (accompanied by a corresponding comprehension test) in order to see if there was a relation between participants’ first and second language reading of static text and that of subtitling. Additionally, participants were given a questionnaire on their reading behaviour, reading preferences, access to subtitled television programming and reading of subtitles in order to find explanations for occurrences in the data. The initial hypothesis was that there would be a difference in L1 and L2 subtitle reading and attention allocation as measured by key eye-tracking parameters. Using ANOVAs, statistically significant differences were indeed found, but the differences were much more significant for the Sesotho L1 than the Afrikaans L1 speakers. After excluding possible confounding factors that were analysed in attempt to refute this hypothesis, the conclusion was that participants inherently read L1 and L2 subtitles differently. The hypothesis is therefore supported. However, the difference in L1 and L2 subtitle reading was not the only significant finding – the Sesotho L1 speakers’ reading data revealed a greater underlying issue, namely literacy. The problem of low literacy levels can be attributed to the participants’ socioeconomic background and history, and needs to be addressed urgently. Recommendations for future research include that the current study be broadened in terms of scope, sampling size, representativeness and experimental material; that the focus be shifted to the rest of the languages spoken in South Africa for which the users do not have a shared sense of bilingualism and for which the L1 skills and levels of L1 literacy vary; and to further explore the relation between the reading of static text and subtitle reading in order to ensure adequate subtitle reading in terms of proportional attention allocation. However, the issue of low literacy levels will have to be addressed urgently; only then will the South African viewing public be able to gain full access to any form of broadcast communicative material or media, and only then will they be able to benefit from subtitling and all that it offers. / North-West University (South Africa). Vaal Triangle Campus.

The impact of digital (new) media has caused both challenges and threats to newspapers’ continuing existence as a profitable and influential mass medium. While this is not the first time in history that new media appear to be challenging the future of the newspaper medium, from one perspective digital media offer not only direct competition, or alternative ways to produce and deliver news, but also possibilities for convergence, for making new media part of the traditional newspaper, inducing whole new possibilities for publishing. From another perspective, the newspaper medium is an old concept; a powerful mass medium with very profound consumption patterns, strongly associated with its traditional output medium: ink-on-paper. The purpose of the present work has been to examine the impacts digital media have on the old, well-established newspaper medium, and what consequences these impacts have for the future of newspaper as a mass medium, that is, is the medium the message? In order to achieve this aim, the present work has been carried out from three different angles: digital media, publishing and reading behaviour and presentation factors. The areas have been examined using several methods: instrumental experiment, eye-tracking experiment, secondary analysis, and case study design. Newspapers’ ’to be or not to be’ depends, in a theoretical sense, on what media constitute. The medium is the message in the sense that, in the definition of a mass medium, the strength of the newspaper message is that it is recognized as the newspaper concept. It is not, in that the message per se is dependent on the medium it is reproduced on, as a newspaper can be considered a newspaper even if presented on a digital medium, yet the specific way the content is presented will always depend on the technology and characteristics of the chosen output medium. Thus, while defusing the output medium’s significance for the concept, the strength of the newspaper, and its industry, lies in what hitherto constitutes the message: accurate, credible, serendipitous, and diverse content, but which is continuously adapted to the technology of the output medium, thus benefiting from it and further strengthening the developed, digitalized newspaper concept, or what will become of it. The newspaper industry has great potential to differentiate itself in a world where news is becoming increasingly commoditized, though it must further emphasize its power, which lies in the long-defined ‘old’ newspaper concept. Moreover, the industry must be aware of the fact that this refashioning and adaptation is a slow process. / QC 20100804