摘要：Technological developments proliferated and expedited news taking. In
addition to traditional media, on-line newspapers provide the news. The news
on on-line newspapers is constantly updated. Lead and body parts of the news
have been around for more than a century. Also, research into comprehension
and remembering of the news from the traditional media is around for over half
a century. Yet, no research is conducted to test comprehension and remembering
from the lead and body parts of the news. The present study aims at exploring
comprehension and remembering from the lead and body parts of three on-line
newspapers. Two pieces of news are chosen from each of the three newspapers and
presented to tertiary students either as the lead or the body of the news. Following
the exposure, the participants were asked to answer the factual questions. The
results of the study suggest that the lead is ultimately more important for the
tertiary students than the body of the news. In line with this, comprehension and
remembering scores yield higher results for the lead part when compared to the
body part of the news.
关键词：news; lead length; body length; comprehension and remembering;
audience;
