Cognitive Effects Of Breaking News

Download or read book Cognitive Effects of Breaking News written by William Joe Watson and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study tested a model of the process involved when television news viewers are exposed to breaking news. The model posited that media present a breaking news frame, which then influences the cognitive processes of those who see it. Testing the model involved two stages. First, a content analysis of actual breaking news examples identified elements contributing to a breaking news frame. Eight production elements were identified as statistically significant in framing breaking news coverage. Second, those elements were used to create a stimulus for an experiment in which a control group saw an artificial news story presented in a traditional format, and a treatment group saw the same story presented in a breaking news format. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to identify differences between the two groups. Members of the treatment group evaluated breaking news as being more urgent than other stories in a newscast, expressed greater curiosity about breaking news, and evaluated breaking news as having occurred more recently than other stories in a newscast. There was no significant difference between the two groups in their evaluation of the importance of breaking news. In addition, hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine if the frequency of viewing television news, need for orientation, and cognitive involvement explained a person's evaluation of breaking news. Only need for orientation emerged as a significant predictor of curiosity about breaking news. The findings of the study were discussed in relation to their implications for audiences and media production. The content analysis suggested that predictable elements, such as an anchor reading a script and videotape, contributed more to breaking news production than techniques like an anchor ad libbing and live reports, which could indicate the presentation of incoming and developing details. The content analysis also revealed that four production techniques (a breaking news open, a lower-third breaking news banner graphic, an anchor on camera, and a verbal identification of breaking news coverage) worked together most frequently to frame breaking news. Results from the experiment confirmed that viewers exposed to breaking news were primed to evaluate the coverage differently than those who were not exposed to breaking news. An examination of individual characteristics, however, provided little additional insight into the priming process. Finally, limitations of the study and directions for future research were discussed.