How Production Value Impacts Perceived Technical Quality, Credibility, and Economic Value of Video News

Abstract

Although media professionals use production value to refer to technical aspects of program quality, evidence suggests that viewers are not adept at recognizing this property of content. Nonetheless, broadcasters are attempting to differentiate news product based on technical dimensions. To test the utility of this strategy, this experiment examined how production value impacts perceived technical quality, credibility, and economic value across two age cohorts. Viewers recognized variation in production value and judged stories high in production value as more credible than identical stories low in production value. However, they placed no greater value on high production value content.

Revisiting Quality Television: Audience Perceptions

“…Although technical excellence, associated to taste and aesthetics (Bottomley, 2015), has been considered in the concept of quality television more frequently when analysed from the perspective of professionals such as program creators, members of juries and television reviewers, viewers can also form their own opinion. Although they may lack the expertise to assess this aspect in detail, they have the ability to make general appraisals, detect extremely high and low technical quality and are sensitive to production value when assessing quality (Cummins & Chambers, 2011). For instance, a large-scale survey among television users in Israel found that although the audience is not very good at discerning gradations of production value among different programs and genres, technical characteristics explain television program appreciation and quality evaluations" among viewers (Shamir, 2007).…”

Mostly Credible and Transparent: Audience Perceptions of News Stories Produced With Traditional and Multiplatform Newsgathering Technologies

“…Credibility of news has also been shown to be related to elements associated with sensory stimulation, such as visual presentation, personalities, aesthetic presentation, and audiovisual factors (Bracken, 2006;Cummins & Chambers, 2011;Lee, 1978;Slater & Rouner, 1996). For example, Cummins and Chambers (2011) suggest that visual news presentation might offer better source credibility than other forms while Bracken (2006) found the quality of images presented on television contributed to audience credibility. Moreover, in earlier studies, Lee (1978) found that the pictures and personalities associated with the visual presentation influenced credibility, moreover, while Slater and Rouner (1996) discovered that aesthetic presentation and content also enhance perceptions of credibility.…”

Audience Preferences in Determining Quality News Production of Backpack Journalism

“…Production techniques such as pacing (Lindekugel, 1994, p. 136) or sound effects associated in a tabloid style news presentation are not deemed newsworthy by audiences compared to standard presentational styles (Grabe, Zhou, Lang, & Bolls, 2000). Lang, Potter, and Grabe (2003) found that certain production techniques used in writing (e.g., Cummins & Chambers, 2011) and editing were likely to enhance the enjoyability, informativeness, and believability of news stories. Production techniques are part of the aesthetic dimensions, which may include "shot composition or framing, continuity editing or the effective use of lighting to convey emotional tone" (Cummins & Chambers, 2010, p. 5).…”

“…can be defined as depth of scrutiny" (p. 694). However, measurements of quality of technical criteria (Cummins & Chambers, 2011) have yet to be explored from the perspective of elements of newsgathering techniques (Diefenbach, 2008;Headley, 2013).…”