Be flexible (in a cognitive kind of way)

A couple of years ago I conducted some experiments with different formats of online news stories. One was a site inspired by Cognitive Flexibility Theory, used by people who study psychology in education. The theory says that if knowledge is formatted in such a way that it encourages folks to “crisscross” the conceptual landscape by reading different case examples of a knowledge area, and by interpreting these cases in light of multiple perspectives — then, folks will more likely make sophisticated interconnections. They’ll understand knowledge areas more deeply, and they’ll understand that issues have gray areas. Online, linkable “nonlinear media” (in other words, Web sites) are perfect for this kind of format.

Here’s an example of a site used for history education: “EASE HISTORY.”

The cognitive flexibility news site

I tested my COGFLEX WEB SITE on the news issue of “cloning”, and I found:

• Readers who knew more about cloning going into the experiment, and who felt more involved with the issue of cloning, learned more and more efficiently from this format.

• But readers who were not knowledgeable about, or involved with, the cloning issue performed abysmally when using the cogflex site. They did much better with the simple “linear” traditional news story.

• So getting too fancy with the nonlinearity and linking can become a real problem for those who aren’t as well informed.

• Readers also tended to enjoy using the site — but overall, they also recalled less story info from memory when using the cogflex site. It’s an ongoing problem with such nonlinear formats for news stories. Readers just don’t click on everything, and so they miss content in many of the various “clickable” nuggets of info — as opposed to having all the content included in a 50-inch running news story. When these formats are used in school classes, they work better because students are expected to read it all and they know they’ll be tested. I don’t think news readers would put up with tests…

At any rate, I still think a format like this has some promise in journalism, especially in an era in which readers increasingly read short nuggets of info, deriving from many different sources (news sites, Google, social media).

What if the news media took complex issues like cloning, the Middle East, health care — and created open source sites that offered readers numerous short news stories that were interlinked with multiple perspectives on these issues. It would be demanding on journalists. But journalists could become the “sense-makers” of a wild and wide-ranging conversation about these issues, offering new stories, and perspectives, but also suggesting a priority for these stories and perspectives based on journalists’ knowledge, background and understanding of these issues.

Such a site would allow a great deal of openness in communication but would also reign it in, and so help stave off the daunting chaos and impossible breadth that accompanies such openness. Such an approach might also challenge journalists to become more expert in their coverage areas.