The Impact of Scrollytelling on the Reading Experience of Long-Form Journalism

Scrollytelling is the most common form of long-form journalism and has become a popular communication device because of its ability to capture an audience’s attention. This could make scrollytelling a suitable format for younger audiences, whose attitudes towards news differ from older generations; it is more individualistic and is driven by progress and entertainment. This paper investigates the effect scrollytelling has on journalistic content according to a younger audience. This was done by letting participants consume an article in both a normal static format, i.e., non-scrollytelling, and a scrollytelling format, and then provide insights through a questionnaire and interview. The results showed a significant difference in perceived engagement favoring the scrollytelling format and clear indications of which features scrollytelling can produce and how desirable these are. It also showed the strength of scrollytelling in its ability to invoke an emotional response.