You are Missing Some Important Details While Viewing News on Your Smartphone: Researchers

If you are getting your news from videos on smartphone, chances of you missing some important details are high as researchers have found that reduced screen size may make people less attentive and activated by what they view.

"We are, to our knowledge, the first to find this effect for news content, and the first to focus on the move from a laptop to smartphone-size screen," said Stuart Soroka, Professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan in the US.

"This finding is of some significance given the trend towards news consumption on mobile technology," Soroka added.

For the study, participants watched a news programme on a computer monitor, using a randomised sample of seven news stories, both international and domestic.

Stories varied widely in subject matter, from a fire in Peru to a Labour Day parade to an American man making bagpipes.

The size of the video varied from roughly 13 inches wide (large) to just five inches wide (small).

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Measuring heart rate and skin conductance during viewing, the researchers found that participants had reduced reactions and attentiveness to the smaller screen.

The findings were published in the journal Information, Communication & Society. (IANS)