Considered Factors of Online News Based on Respondents’ Eye Activity Using Eye-Tracker Analysis

Abstract

Development of the internet as a source of information has penetrated many aspects of human life, which is shown in the increasingly diverse substance of news in online news sources. Previous studies have stated that the presentation of the substance of online news information can have negative impacts, especially the emergence of anxiety in users; thus, managing the presentation of information becomes important. This study intends to explore factors that should be considered as possible anxiety-inducers for readers of news sites. Analyses of areas of interest (AOIs), fixation, and heat maps from respondents’ eye activity obtained from eye-tracker data have been compiled with Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) measurement results to analyze anxiety among newsreaders. The results show that text is the dominant center of attention in various types of news. The reason for the higher anxiety that arises from text on online news sites is twofold. First, there are the respondents’ experiences. Second, text usage allows for boundless possibilities in respondents’ imaginations as a response to the news that has occurred.