ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that journalists develop a sophisticated frame database that individuals could manipulate using the interactive tools that are the core of hypermedia as a communication medium. Hypermedia news thus would consist of news stories, as is the case now, plus frame databases (FDBs). Basically, people have a very limited capacity for information processing, even when they are concentrating, and hypermedia news must encourage creativity within the constraints. Research in cognitive and political psychology indicates that people are more likely to attend to information that fits with their existing schema. There are three important processing bottlenecks, (1) Short-term or working memory, (2) Moving material from short- to long-term memory, and (3) Long-term memory. Thus, although a hypermedia news story cannot force a person to act with volition, it can be encouraged and made worth while. Organizing structures of choices is therefore an important part of designing a hypermedia news story.
