Jtm-pnw-session-low-lit

From IVP Wiki
Revision as of 19:18, 9 January 2010 by Bill Densmore (talk | contribs)

How to plan a site for low-literacy adults? Maureen Skowran (I/AV Room)

Maurreen Skowran is a former copy editor at the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer. Last year she moved to Albuquerque, N.M., to help with her family. She's now working part-time at the Albuquerque Journal as a copyeditor. She is working on developing a newsletter for homeless people. She realized quickly that there is news or media gap in Albuquerque. Low-literacy adults need ways to access the news and important civic information. She believes this is a national issue, and she has proposed a Knight News Challenge project to trial a solution for Albuquerque.


FOUR QUESTIONS FOR THE KNIGHT APPLICATION:

Marketing

  • The name is going to be EZ ABQ
  • Propose that legacy media support EQ ABQ's effort to produce a "low-literacy" version
      --They could reach a different audience

What are the steps to get to where you are going

What needs will be fulfilled

What difference will the project make

  • One measurement might be able many people wrote in?

How will it be sustained?

  • Probably donations and advertising

Q: What does this have to do with the digital divide?

  • Skowran: People on the lower level of the economic spectrum -- physical access via libraries at work or elsewhere -- so there is physical access to the Internet. But for low-literacy adults, it is more overwhelming. A lot of sites are fairly complex and there is also document complexity. Newspapers are easier to read than websites, because websites have complex taxonomy.

Skowran cites Jacob Nielsen and his work on web usability. He has studied low-literacy adult usability issues to some degree. Low-literacy adults have to plow through one word at a time.

Q: How would pages look?

  • Skowran: There would be an icon on each page representing the subject matter of a page. Only three to six icons on a page. It might take folks longer to get to the page they want, but they will understand how they got there. There's always a home button on every page.

Q: What need will this fulfill?

  • Skowran: People will be able to get information they weren't able to get before. There is a national newspaper called News for You, from the New Readers Press, which has some stuff online, that does approach this challenge somewhat.

Media tends to write about disadvantaged (whether by income or literacy) people, but not for them or about them, Skowran says. A lot of people who are low-literate -- you might not know that.

Action steps

  • Skowran relates her project to the theories in Clayton Christiansen's "The Innovators' Dilemma," work.

what would be on the home page?=

  • Skowran: There was a vote about whether a portion of the city south of Albuquerque would become its own city. She thought it would have been interesting, if they were operating, to make simple sample ballots that illustrated the issue from a voting perspective. Some pages you would choose your way into the information you need, based on following the icons. If you are on a story there will be some amount of text and some amount of pictures.

There might comic-book stories. She'll use info-graphics -- but simple infographics.

Q: How much original content vs. condensing things?

  • Skowran: In general she expects it will all be original. She could imagine working out rights arrangements with the Albuquerque Journal and some other organizations.

Her rough plan is there would be three: One is the rewrite editor and community liason. She will simplify language and making sure there is an interaction with the audience. Second person is the multimedia journalist. They will be mostly visually oriented and an adequate to competent reporter. Third person (Skowran) will be doing some of the reporting, most of the editing, and working with the community, the audience and donors and potential donors. It's basic tiny weekly but it will be mainly digital.

Q: What about working with the Duke City Fix? Perhaps EZABQ could be have rights to Duke City Fix copy and would simplify it.

  • Skowran: Will look into that.
Retrieved from "http://newshare.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jtm-pnw-session-low-lit&oldid=2696"