New study reveals how to keep readers’ attention in digital age

A new study from Fox School of Business faculty members Joydeep Srivastava (far left), Susan Mudambi and Subodha Kumar outlines how storytelling design is key for retaining reader engagement. (Photo credit: Ryan S. Brandenberg)

Since the dawn of newspapers in the 17th century, journalists' and storytellers’ top mechanism for capturing a reader’s attention has been the same: a story’s headline and lede. 

Today, those two journalism mechanisms remain as important as ever, especially given the rise of the internet and the introduction of search engine optimization. However, a new study from Temple University’s Fox School of Business has found that while headlines grab attention, it is storytelling design that determines whether an audience sticks with a story. 

Recently accepted for publication in Information Systems Research, the scholarly journal article “How to Tell a (News) Story? Quantifying the Impact of News Format and Storytelling on Engagement” found that reader engagement is shaped not only by what the story says but by how it is told.

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