The Impact of Melodramatic News Coverage on Information Recall and Comprehension

Abstract

In many countries, television newscasts are increasingly relying on personalization and emotion exacerbation in their news coverage, arguably as a means to attract audiences. Such features are prominent in Latin American cultural products based on melodrama, such as telenovelas. While often deemed to be bad journalism, there is mixed evidence on the impact of such news treatment on knowledge acquisition, especially with audiences more attuned to these formats. Based on an experiment in Chile, this study tests the effects of melodramatic coverage on viewers' recall and comprehension of news items. Results show that melodramatic treatment favors recall, but not comprehension of data included in the news reports. Comparisons across news treatment by gender, age group, and socio-economic status suggest that rather than overall differences, specific demographic groups are more affected by melodramatic news.

The produsing expert consumer: Co-constructing, resisting and accepting health-related claims on social media in response to an infotainment show about food

“…Although we cannot generalize our findings with respect to social media reactions to the show’s whole audience, our data nonetheless support literature stating that infotainment does not impede uptake (e.g. Mujica and Bachmann, 2016). However, further comparative and experimental research is needed to determine whether uptake is better or worse in purely informational formats than in infotainment formats.…”

“…More optimistic scholars argue that dichotomizing entertainment and information and content and style is a simplistic rendition of the media landscape (Hartley, 1996; Hauttekeete, 2005), and that there is no uniform strong and linear trend towards tabloidization (Hauttekeete, 2005). Recent research has also shown that a different understanding of infotainment content is an effect on attitudinal changes, rather than factual knowledge (Kim and Vishak, 2008), that infotainment aspects can even have positive effects on recall, and do not significantly affect comprehension (Mujica and Bachmann, 2016).…”

Personalized News and Participatory Intent

“…Exemplars are, however, more salient than base rates (Busselle & Shrum, 2003), drawing more attention to news stories (Aust & Zillmann, 1996; Perry & Gonzenbach, 1997). Last, the term personalization is often used among European social scientists and qualitative scholars (Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005; Jebril et al, 2013; Macdonald, 1998; Mujica & Bachmann, 2016; Rucinski, 1992), referring to the inclusion of comments by laypersons that arguably increases the vividness of news and provokes emotional responses in audiences.…”

Diseño televisivo a través de la neurociencia

“…Por ello la información importante deberá introducirse siguiendo las escenas negativas y no precediéndolas Potter;Grabe, 2003). Aun cuando se trata de contenidos informativos, los elementos y características del storytelling y edición impactan de diversa forma en la emoción y cognición, por ejemplo, con los informativos de estilo melodramático (Grabe et al, 2000;Mújica;Bachmann, 2016). El contenido (sexo, violencia, desastres) y las características estructurales (edición y realización) del tabloide influyen en el arousal emocional (Grabe et al, 2000).…”