Learning from the news: Experiments in media,modality, and reporting about star wars |
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Authors: | Marion Just Ann Crigler |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Political Science , Wellesley College , Wellesley, MA, 02181;2. Department of Political Science , University of Southern California , Los Angeles, CA, 90007 |
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Abstract: | This study explores what ordinary American adults learn from news reported in different communications modalities and media. In the first experiment, the text of news items about Star Wars is held constant but the communications modality varies. In the second experiment, news reports reflect the journalistic style of television, newspaper, and magazine reporting. In the modality experiment, subjects learned equally well from the audiovisual, audio, or print versions of the stories. In the media experiment, subjects in the magazine and television conditions gained substantially more information than those in the newspaper condition; but when subjects were asked to apply information to policy judgments about Star Wars, magazine readers were more dovish than television viewers. For Star Wars news, it appears that the content and characteristic style of a news medium have important effects on news comprehension, particularly for the least informed and least interested members of the public. |
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Keywords: | Mass media news learning experiments Star Wars/Strategic Defense Initiative United States |
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