This book explores how individuals process important butcomplex news about science, health and technology. The researchmeasures the relationships of new media, its content and itsaudiences. Specifically, how does the non-linear freedom ofhypertext affect interest in and comprehension of news aboutcomplex topics? In the first oftwo experiments, readingcomprehension theory from the Structure Building Framework(Gernsbacher, 1990) and the Construction-Integration Model (van Dyk&Kintsch, 1983) are synthesized with the theoretical role ofsituational interest in learning from text (Hidi, 1988). Experimenttwo tests the same content from experiment one in a non-linearhypertext environment to measure how message structure affectsinterest and understanding.