"Which Canadian online media source is the most sophisticated?"
Ryan Alan (0358225)
Greg Atkinson (0374439)
Jim Chisholm (0372753)
Tom Dang (0054115)
Drew Garvey (0372825)
Slide 1 of11
Presentation Outline
This presentation synthesizes the findings of our research from within both our expert and home groups.
We examined the following media sources:
canada.com, cbc.ca, theglobeandmail.com, yahoo.ca, therecord.com
Our report is broken down into the following subsections:
What Is Sophistication?
Assessment of Online Media’s Accessibility
Text Analysis and Results
Survey and Results
Research Paper and Notes
Resources
Slide 2 of 11
What is Sophistication?
Basic criteria for evaluating the sophistication of an online source:
• Author and site sponsor are identified and contact information is available
• The work is dated
• The site’s purpose is clear (business, entertainment, news, information, etc.)
• Content is well organized
• Interactivity that increases the content’s value is present
• Users can easily tell what site they are visiting
• A navigation system is present and useable
• Any audio, graphic, movie, or other media files are useful and serve a purpose
• The site’s format remains consistent
• All aspects must be integrated
Sites:
CBC.ca
The CBC website fulfills all of the above criteria. The site Is well
organized and cited. Each section ifs identifiable, well organized, and
it is easy to navigate between the different sections of the website.
Many multimedia files are used very well. Each image, sound, or video
file serves a purpose and is integrated into the site.
Canada.com
Canada.com does a good job identifying authors, dates of articles and
sponsors. The purpose of the different sections of the site is
relatively clear, but navigation is inconsistent. Each section of the
site modifies the navigation bar (to different degrees) making
navigation a frustrating guessing game. Elements of multimedia are
present, but at times their purpose is questionable. Video clips, for
example, are simply taken from television broadcasts. The site is well
integrated, however, ads pollute the site and hurt the content
integration somewhat.
TheRecord.com
It is difficult to judge The Record, as it works on a subscription
basis. Judging by The Record’s “Free Zone,” the site’s navigation
system seems on par with that of Canada.com; navigation is present and
usable, however it is a bit inconsistent. The navigation bar is
sometimes appears in different places on different pages. The site’s
organization seems logical and pictures seem to be used well. The site
is dated and sponsors are identified on each page.
News.Yahoo.ca
Yahoo! Canada News falls between CBC.ca and Canada.com in terms of
sophistication. Authors and sponsors are relatively clear (it can be
confusing, because Yahoo! links to other news articles) and the work is
dated. Each section of the site is identified. Video elements are used,
but like Canada.com, they are generally taken from other sources and
not well integrated into the site. Over all everything is integrated
relatively well into a consistent format.
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a sophisticated site with everything integrated
very well into a consistent layout. Navigation is well done, but it
seems like it could be simplified, as the interface seems more
cluttered than CBC.ca. The citations are the best of any of the
previously mentioned sites. Authors, dates and sponsors are clearly
labeled at the top of very article. The site seems to be modeled after
a newspaper, and because of this there is little multimedia (audio,
video) on the site.
Conclusions:
The following conclusions are made without considering the readability
of each site’s articles. Conclusions are therefore made with the
assumption that the reading level of each site is similar (this is a
large assumption).
CBC.ca
is the most sophisticated site. The Globe is second and is followed by
Yahoo! and Canada.com. The Record is the least sophisticated of the
sites studied. CBC.ca was the most well organized, integrated and
useful of the sites observed. Its tight integration of multimedia
content and strong navigation system were major factors in selecting
CBC.ca as the most sophisticated site.
Slide 3 of 11
Here we compare the Canadian online news media sources The Globe and Mail.com, Yahoo Canada News, The Record.com, Canada.com, and CBC.ca. The criteria to be used will be the amount of information open to users, ease of navigation, and social bias.
Amount of Information:
Worst: The Record.com – only gave user access to titles of headline articles, anything else requires subscription.
Best: All others – gave user access to all articles and other media in their entirety, free of charge.
Ease of Navigation:
Worst: The Record.com – no visual distinctions between navigation bar
and rest of page, navigation bar is located in the middle of the page,
and every link leads to sign in page.
Best: CBC.ca – easily identifiable navigation system, page layout
reinforces metaphor of an actual newspaper: articles are group, and
linked to one another by subject.
Social Bias:
Worst: The Record.com – all content is framed in a middle to upper
middle class Ontario perspective, as well as being directed only at the
people of the Waterloo region.
Best: CBC.ca – offers articles with no apparent rhetorical social bias,
the articles also cover a variety of topics identifiable by the
majority of Canadians.
Slide 4 of 11
Text Analysis and Results
The sites were submitted to several text/code analyzers for checking. The results can be found on the following pages.
Results for therecord.com are excluded, as it's a "pay per article" news source.
Below are definitions used in the text analysis results to help identify sophistication:
Lexical Density (Definition and formula by usingenglish.com):
The
lexical density of a text tries to measure the proportion of the
content (lexical) words over the total words. Texts with a lower
density are more easily understood.
The Lexical Density Test uses the following formula:
Lexical Density = (Number of different words / Total number of words) x 100
(Gunning) Fog Index (Definition and formula by usingenglish.com):
The
Gunning Fog Index gives the number of years of education that your
reader hypothetically needs to understand the paragraph or text. The
Gunning Fog Index formula implies that short sentences written in plain
English achieve a better score than long sentences written in
complicated language.
The Gunning Fog Test uses the following formula:
Reading Level (Grade) = (Average No. of words in sentences / Percentage of words of three or more syllables) x 0.4
Slide 5 of 11
The following results are from HyperPo:
CANADA.COM
Report on the Text
* Text Source: http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=b8d4fa55-32f6-4b63-aa33-e9c3682b5703
* Text Title: News | canada.com network
* Language of text: Other / Unspecified
* Total words (tokens): 2000
* Unique words (types): 742
* Highest word frequency: 131
* Average word frequency: 2.70
* Standard Deviation of word frequencies: 6.74
* Average word length: 5.04
* Standard Deviation of word lengths: 2.58
* Number of sentences: 136
* Average words per sentence: 14.7
* Number of paragraphs: 72
* Average words per paragraph: 27.8
CBC.CA
Report on the Text
* Text Source: http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/10/09/Quake20051009.html
* Text Title: CBC News: Rescuers hunt for South Asia quake survivors
* Language of text: Other / Unspecified
* Total words (tokens): 851
* Unique words (types): 434
* Highest word frequency: 36
* Average word frequency: 1.96
* Standard Deviation of word frequencies: 3.24
* Average word length: 5.18
* Standard Deviation of word lengths: 2.64
* Number of sentences: 52
* Average words per sentence: 16.4
* Number of paragraphs: 53
* Average words per paragraph: 16.1
THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM
Report on the Text
* Text Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051008.wquake1007_2/BNStory/International/
* Text Title: The Globe and Mail: Death toll continues to rise
* Language of text: Other / Unspecified
* Total words (tokens): 2149
* Unique words (types): 856
* Highest word frequency: 116
* Average word frequency: 2.51
* Standard Deviation of word frequencies: 5.87
* Average word length: 4.96
* Standard Deviation of word lengths: 2.65
* Number of sentences: 149
* Average words per sentence: 14.4
* Number of paragraphs: 220
* Average words per paragraph: 9.8
YAHOO.CA
Report on the Text
* Text Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/pakistan_quake;_ylt=AtY0XPkJOqrsDQKZMk3K56unZiEB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
* Text Title: Rescuers Try to Reach Asia Quake Survivors - Yahoo! News
* Language of text: Other / Unspecified
* Total words (tokens): 1828
* Unique words (types): 746
* Highest word frequency: 84
* Average word frequency: 2.45
* Standard Deviation of word frequencies: 5.09
* Average word length: 4.97
* Standard Deviation of word lengths: 2.51
* Number of sentences: 127
* Average words per sentence: 14.4
* Number of paragraphs: 247
* Average words per paragraph: 7.4
Slide 6 of 11
The following results are from UsingEnglish
CANADA.COM
Total Word Count 1870
Total Unique Words 704
Number of Sentences 123
Average Words per Sentence 15.24
Lexical Density 37.65% (what's this?)
Fog Index 9.16 (what's this?)
WORD LENGTH BREAKDOWN
0 letter words 1 0.1%
1 letter words 41 2.2%
2 letter words 270 14.4%
3 letter words 318 17.0%
4 letter words 284 15.2%
5 letter words 210 11.2%
6 letter words 228 12.2%
7 letter words 146 7.8%
8 letter words 154 8.2%
9 letter words 98 5.2%
10 letter words 56 3.0%
11 letter words 32 1.7%
12 letter words 20 1.1%
13 letter words 9 0.5%
14 letter words 3 0.2%
CBC.CA
Total Word Count 761
Total Unique Words 394
Number of Sentences 54
Average Words per Sentence 14.14
Lexical Density 51.77% (what's this?)
Fog Index 10.16 (what's this?)
WORD LENGTH BREAKDOWN
0 letter words 1 0.1%
1 letter words 11 1.4%
2 letter words 114 15.0%
3 letter words 123 16.2%
4 letter words 111 14.6%
5 letter words 92 12.1%
6 letter words 69 9.1%
7 letter words 58 7.6%
8 letter words 67 8.8%
9 letter words 62 8.1%
10 letter words 24 3.2%
11 letter words 14 1.8%
12 letter words 6 0.8%
13 letter words 3 0.4%
14 letter words 4 0.5%
16 letter words 1 0.1%
17 letter words 1 0.1%
THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM
Total Word Count 1152
Total Unique Words 530
Number of Sentences 93
Average Words per Sentence 12.44
Lexical Density 46.01% (what's this?)
Fog Index 8.36 (what's this?)
WORD LENGTH BREAKDOWN
0 letter words 1 0.1%
1 letter words 28 2.4%
2 letter words 157 13.6%
3 letter words 179 15.5%
4 letter words 190 16.5%
5 letter words 135 11.7%
6 letter words 135 11.7%
7 letter words 94 8.2%
8 letter words 82 7.1%
9 letter words 72 6.3%
10 letter words 37 3.2%
11 letter words 23 2.0%
12 letter words 12 1.0%
13 letter words 5 0.4%
14 letter words 2 0.2%
YAHOO.CA
Total Word Count 1245
Total Unique Words 577
Number of Sentences 95
Average Words per Sentence 13.14
Lexical Density 46.35% (what's this?)
Fog Index 8.65 (what's this?)
WORD LENGTH BREAKDOWN
0 letter words 1 0.1%
1 letter words 36 2.9%
2 letter words 176 14.1%
3 letter words 210 16.9%
4 letter words 208 16.7%
5 letter words 142 11.4%
6 letter words 151 12.1%
7 letter words 88 7.1%
8 letter words 82 6.6%
9 letter words 74 5.9%
10 letter words 34 2.7%
11 letter words 18 1.4%
12 letter words 13 1.0%
13 letter words 8 0.6%
14 letter words 3 0.2%
17 letter words 1 0.1%
Slide 7 of 11
In order to help gauge sophistication, our group conducted a survey amongst our peers. The survey was done in accordance with our understanding
of McMaster's code of ethics. It was a voluntary and anonymous survey, conducted by each member of our group. We each produced five completed surveys, to total
twenty five people surveyed.
Slide 8 of 11
Below are the survey results. The results from each website/category were averaged to form a
criteria score (out of a possible 5), and then the criteria scores were averaged to form a total mark.
[1 = lowest,5 = highest]
CBC.ca |
4.2 4.0 3.7 3.5 4.6 |
Average |
4.0 |
| Canada.com Navigation and Layout Readability (language?) Readability (aesthetics: font size, colour, etc) Overall aesthetics (the way the site looks?) Content (not enough? summary only?) |
4.2 3.8 3.8 3.3 4.2 |
Average |
3.9 |
| The Record.com Navigation and Layout Readability (language?) Readability (aesthetics: font size, colour, etc) Overall aesthetics (the way the site looks?) Content (not enough? summary only?) |
2.4 2.3 2.6 2.1 2.0 |
Average |
2.3 |
| Yahoo.ca Navigation and Layout Readability (language?) Readability (aesthetics: font size, colour, etc) Overall aesthetics (the way the site looks?) Content (not enough? summary only?) |
2.5 3.6 3.9 3.0 3.8 |
Average |
3.8 |
| The Globe and Mail.com Navigation and Layout Readability (language?) Readability (aesthetics: font size, colour, etc) Overall aesthetics (the way the site looks?) Content (not enough? summary only?) |
4.2 4.0 3.6 3.6 4.4 |
Average |
4.0 |
Slide 9 of 11
Click HERE to download our research paper, which provides more insight into how we structured this project,
and what research led into our findings.
If our group had more time to work on this project, we would have extended our work on the survey to include a larger sample.
We would have also worked on combining our text analysis findings with the overall results.
Slide 10 of 11
Our group used .mac groups to collaborate online.
Slide 11 of 11