| ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF TV NEWS RESEARCH
Prepared by Annie
Lang, Indiana University
Updated by Johanna Cleary, University of North Carolina
- Pictures and Images:
How images affect memory and attitude
- Audio-Video Redundancy: When words and
pictures match
- Editing Pace and Style: Speed of editing,
cutting within sequences
- Production Techniques: Use of graphics,
tabloid features, live reporting, online reporting
- Story Structure: Narrative
style, language, repetition
- Newscast Structure: Story placement,
formats
- Teases, Bumpers and Recaps: Effect of
devices on memory and understanding
- Disclaimers and Labeling:
Effect of labels on credibility
- Exemplification: Use of examples to
illustrate trends
- Management: Diversity,
change, salaries
- Other studies: Books,
and research before 1985.
Pictures/Images
Brosius, Hans-Bernd (1993). The effects of emotional pictures
in television news. Communication Research, 20, 105-124.
This study found that stories with pictures were remembered better
than those without. The quality of the pictures (partially or completely
illustrating the story) did not matter. However, when the pictures
were emotional (all negative emotions) memory for the stories was
worse.
Brosius, Hans-Bernd (1989). Influence of presentation features
and news content on learning from television news. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 33, 1-14.
This study manipulated audio repetition, audio/video redundancy,
the presence or absence of video, and the length of the newscast.
Placing a still graphic that relates to the news story topic behind
the anchor will substantially improve memory for the story although
it does not improve memory for detailed facts or comprehension of
the story.
Cooper, S.D. (2000). An effect of the medium in news stories:
"The pictures in our heads." New Jersey Journal of Communication,
8(2), 173-188.
This study used an experimental design to test for a channel effect
in news stories. Four television news stories were recorded off-air,
then the narrations were transcribed to form a print news story
containing the same words. The study showed some evidence that viewers
of television news are inclined to judge actors in the stories as
members of categories or groups, whereas readers of print news tend
to be more specific.
Gibbons, J., Vogl, R. and Grimes, T. (2003). Memory Misattribution
for Characters in a Television News Story. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 47(1), 99-112.
This study found that gender stereotypes can influence viewers'
memory for TV news stories to the extent that they misremember which
character did what. Showing viewers a still frame of the characters
before screeing the story cleared up much of the confusion.
Graber, D. (1990). Seeing is remembering: How visuals contribute
to learning from television news. Journal of Communication, 40,
134-155.
This study showed that only a small amount of the information contained
in a news story is remembered. Somewhat more visual information
is remembered than verbal information - even though the verbal information
may be the important part of the story while the visual information
is often only mildly related to the topic of the story. Visuals
improve memory and comprehension of the stories compared to an audio
only presentation.
Grimes, T. (1990). The encoding of TV news messages into memory.
Journalism Quarterly, 67(4), 757-766.
This study suggests that viewers blend the meaning of the video
and audio of a TV news story into a unitary long-term memory. Information
that is vague in the audio channel, which is supplemented by specific
visual information, is "remembered" by study participants as having
been stated in the audio. The opposite is also true: Meaningful
information in the audio channel that is accompanied by vague, non-specific
video is "remembered" by viewers as being in the visual channel.
Lang, A., Newhagen, J., & Reeves, B. (1996). Negative video
as structure: Emotion, attention, capacity, and memory. Journal
of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 40, pp. 460-477.
Adding compelling negative video to news stories increases attention,
mental effort, recall for the story topic, recognition for information
occurring during the negative video, and negative emotional response
of the viewer. However, it decreases recognition for information
that precedes the negative video. This study did not look at audio
and video information separately.
Lang, A., Potter, R.F., & Bolls, P. (1999). Something for
nothing: Is visual encoding automatic? Media Psychology, 1(2),
145-164.
Provides evidence that encoding visual images requires little or
no mental effort and is virtually unaffected by increasing the complexity
of the message. On the other hand, verbal recognition appears to
require controlled processing resources (mental effort) and is severely
impaired by increasing message complexity.
Newhagen, J. & Reeves, B. (1992). The evening’s bad news:
Effects of compelling negative television news images on memory.
Journal of Communication, 42(2), 25-42.
Memory for visual information in newscasts is improved during and
following compelling negative images in news stories. However, memory
for audio information before and during the compelling negative
images and visual information before the compelling negative
images is worse.
Smith, S.L., & Wilson, B.J. (2000). Children's reaction to a
television news story: The impact of video footage and proximity
of the crime. Communication Research, 27(5), 641-673.
This experiment assessed children's reactions to particular features
of television news. Children including 6- and 7-year-olds, and 10-
and 11-year-olds, viewed one of four versions of a news story about
gang violence. Older children were more likely to be frightened
by and perceive themselves personally vulnerable to a story about
local as opposed to a non-local crime. In contrast, the video footage
unexpectedly decreased fear responses among children in both age
groups.
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Audio-Video
Redundancy
Brosius, Hans-Bernd, Donsbach, W., & Birk, M. (1996). How
do text-picture relations affect the informational effectiveness
of television newscasts? Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic
Media, 40, 180-195.
This study compared stories where the video illustrated the audio,
was mildly related to the audio, was not related to the audio, or
was absent (audio only). Results showed that free and cued recall
was better for the highly redundant condition compared to all other
conditions. There were no significant differences between the other
conditions, however the direction of the means showed that mildly
related video was better than discordant video, and no video. No
video was slightly better (for free recall) than discordant video.
Evaluation measures showed that subject preferred the highly and
mildly related versions and audio only versions to the video discordant
versions of the stories.
Brosius, Hans-Bernd (1989). Influence of presentation features
and news content on learning from television news. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 33, 1-14.
This study manipulated audio repetition, a/v redundancy, the presence
or absence of video, and the length of the newscast. A/V redundant
stories were not remembered more than stories where the audio and
video were not redundant, however recognition for details in the
A/V redundant stories was better than recognition for details in
the non-redundant stories.
Crigler, A. N., Just, M., Neuman, W. R. (1994). Interpreting
visual versus audio messages in television news. Journal of Communication,
44(4), 132-149.
This study compares audio, video, and audio/video news stories
on comprehension, memory, and emotional responses. It finds that
a/v presentations elicit the greatest emotional arousal. Audio only
and a/v stories are understood the best. Visual only are understood
the worst. However, the coherence of the narrative is an important
variable. If the audio narrative is well constructed it may do as
well as the a/v story in memory. A/V works best when the audio and
video are parallel. A strong video narrative MAY overwhelm a weak
audio narrative.
Drew, Dan G. & Grimes, T. (1989). Audio-Visual Redundancy
and TV News Recall. Communication Research, 14(4), 452-461.
A comparison of stories with high and low audio-video redundancy
found that stories with high a/v redundancy have higher verbal and
lower visual memory, while stories that are low in a/v redundancy
show higher visual memory and lower verbal memory. In addition,
high a/v redundancy improved comprehension for the stories.
Fox, Julia R. (2004). A Signal Detection Analysis of Audio/Video
Redundancy Effects on Television News Video. Communication Research
31(5), 524-536
This study, using signal detection methods, found participants
were better able to discriminate information from news stories with
redundant visuals than from news stories with dissonant visuals.
This finding is further evidence that the robust audio/video redundancy
effect in the literature reflects differences of memory strength
and not simply a shift in decision criterion.
Grimes, T. (1991). Mild auditory-visual dissonance in television
news may exceed viewer attentional capacity. Human Communication
Research, 18, 268-298.
This study manipulated audio-video redundancy (none, medium, and
high) and measured audio and video recall for news stories. The
results showed that both audio and visual recognition are better
in the high redundancy and medium redundancy condition than in the
no-redundancy condition. In the no-redundancy condition visual recognition
is better than audio. Audio recognition is harmed more than video
recognition by decreasing redundancy.
Grimes, T. & Drechsel, R. (1996). Word-picture juxtaposition,
schemata, and defamation in television news. Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly, 73(1), 169-180.
Gender stereotypes (i.e., "schemata") can distort viewer memories
of TV news stories. When females appeared in non-stereotypical professional
roles, and then men appeared in the same news story, those men were
consistently remembered by study participants as holding the professional
roles that the females in the story actually held. Such role misattributions
can lead to legal problems for stations. The researchers suggest
that when females are portrayed in non-traditional roles, editors
should try to separate them -- in time and in space -- from males
who appear in the same story. And if it's not editorially necessary
to show men in the story, it may be best to leave them out.
Lang, A. (1995). Defining audio/video redundancy from a limited
capacity information processing perspective. Communication Research,
22, 86-115.
This study reviews the literature on a/v redundancy and concludes
that, in general, a/v redundancy can improve memory, especially
for the verbal content of the newscast, if the story is not too
complex (either in terms of content or structure).
Newhagen, John E. (1995). Effects of verbal and nonverbal aural
redundancy on memory and attention for television. Paper presented
to the annual meeting of the International Communication Association.
This study suggests that non-verbal audio effects capture attention
and increase mental effort, however, this may not improve audio
recognition or recall. Pictures may result in less mental effort,
but visual recognition is very high. (This study did not use "news"
stories).
Son, J., Reese, S. D., and Davie, W. R. (1987). Effects of visual-verbal
redundancy and recaps on television news learning. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 31, 207-216.
Results show that high redundancy between audio and video information
in news stories improved recall for the stories but had no effect
on comprehension.
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Editing Pace
and Style
Lang, A., Shin, M., Bradley, S., Wang, Z., Lee, S., and Potter,
D. Wait!
Don't Turn that Dial! More Excitement to Come! The Effects of
Story Length and Production Pacing in Local Television News on Channel
Changing Behavior and Information
Processing in a Free Choice Environment Journal of Broadcasting
& Electronic Media 49(1), 2005.
This study investigated whether news story length and production
pacing affect channel changing behavior in younger and older adults.
Neither pacing nor story length had much effect on how long older
viewers watched a channel. Younger viewers spent more time on channels
with fast-paced shorter stories, but on channels with longer stories,
younger viewers spent more time watching those that were also slower-paced.
In another surprising result, faster pacing led to better recognition
for long stories and worse recognition for short stories for both
age groups.
Lang, A., Bolls, P., Potter, R., and Kawahara, K. (in press).
The Effects of Production Pacing and Arousing Content on the Information
Processing of Television Messages. Journal of Broadcasting and
Electronic Media.
This study manipulated the pace of editing and the arousing content
of the stories. Pacing is manipulated by the number of changes from
one visual scene to another. It finds that fast pace hurts verbal
memory but has little effect on visual memory. Arousing content
improves memory. However, when stories are both arousing and fast
paced or neither arousing nor fast paced, memory for the stories
is the worst.
Lang, A., Geiger, S., Strickwerda, M., Sumner, J., (1993). The
effects of related and unrelated cuts on viewers’ memory for television:
A limited capacity theory of television viewing. Communication
Research, Vol. 20; 1. pp. 4-29.
This paper measured memory for information presented immediately
after a change from one camera to another (in the same scene) or
a change from one scene to another. If found that these edits/cuts
increased attention and mental effort. However, changing scenes
reduced memory for about 2-3 seconds, while staying in the same
scene resulted in an increase in memory.
Zhou, S., Schwartz, N., Bolls, P., Potter, R. F., Lang, A.,
Trout, G., Funabiki, R., Borse, J., & Dent, D. (1997, August).
When an edit is an edit can an edit be too much? The effects of
edits on arousal, attention, and memory for television messages.
Paper presented to the Theory and Methodology Division of the Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Chicago, IL.
This study shows that the pace of switching from one camera to
another in the same visual scene does not damage memory for messages,
but rather as pacing increases, memory increases.
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Production Techniques
Bergen, L., Grimes, T., & Potter, D. (2005). How attention
partitions itself during simultaneous message presentations. Human
Communication Research, 31 (3), 311-336.
This study compared viewers' ability to process TV news stories
with and without multiple layers of surrounding graphics. Visual
complexity caused participants to shift attention to the audio track.
As a result, they missed about 10% of the information presented.
(A longer summary is available here.)
Edwardson, M., Kent, K., Engstrom, E., & Hofmann, R. (1992).
Audio recall immediately following video change in television news.
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 36, 395-410.
This study found that introducing graphics into news stories decreased
memory for the concurrent audio information. However, it increased
overall recall for the story, and viewers’ liking and comprehension
of the stories.
Fox, J.R., Lang, A., Chung, Y., Lee, S., Schwartz, N.,
and Potter, D. (2004). Picture this: Effects of graphics on the
processing of television news. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48 (4), 646-674.
The study found that animated graphics worked better than full-screen
graphics or b-roll in both holding viewer attention and increasing
comprehension for news stories. The effect was especially pronounced
for stories that were rated difficult to understand. (A longer summary
is available here.)
Grabe, M.E.; Lang, A. & Zhao, X. (2003). News Content and
Form: Implications for Memory and Audience Evaluations. Communication
Research, 30(4), 387-413
This experiment examines the effect of tabloid and standard packaging
styles on calm and arousing news stories. Results indicate that
the bells and whistles of tabloid production features enhance memory
for calm news items but overburden the information processing system
when applied to arousing news content. Viewers rate news packaged
in the tabloid format as less objective and believable than stories
without these dramatic features.
Grabe, M. E., Zhou, S., Lang, A. and Bolls, P. (2000). Packaging
television news: The effects of tabloid on information processing
and evaluative responses. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic
Media, 44(4), 581-598.
This study compared evaluations, attention, emotion, and memory
for news stories produced using a tabloid or a standard format.
The tabloid stories differed from the standard format in the use
of music, sound effects, slow motion, flash frames as transitions
between shots, and the obtrusiveness of the reporter's voice. The
flamboyant tabloid packaging style increased arousal and attention
but did not have a significant impact on recognition memory or delayed
free recall of information. Moreover, viewers found the tabloid
stories to be less believable, less informative, less enjoyable,
and to have reporters who were less detached.
Mesbah, H. (2005). The impact of linear and non-linear
listening to radio news on recall and comprehension. Paper presented
at AEJMC, San Antonio, TX.
The study found that interactivity increases understanding and
memory for radio news stories, but only up to a point. Participants
who could listen online at their own pace (by clicking on each individual
story in order) scored better than those who listened to the radio,
or to a streaming newscast online. But adding more links and background
to the web page actually decreased comprehension and recall.
Thorson, E. and Lang, A. (1992). Effects of television videographics
and lecture familiarity on adult cardiac orienting responses and
memory. Communication Research, Vol. 19, #3, pp. 346-369.
This study looked at memory for the verbal and the visual content
of messages before, during, and after the appearance of a redundancy
videographic. It found that when the topic of the story was difficult/unfamiliar
the videographic reduced memory for information presented while
the videographic was on screen. However, when the content was easy
or familiar to the viewer memory was increased during the videographic.
Tuggle, C.A., & Huffman, S. (1999). Live news reporting: Professional
judgment or technological pressure? A national survey of television
news directors and senior reporters. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 43(4), 492-505.
Findings from this study indicate that news reporters are at times
uncomfortable with live reporting, believing that news operations
often allow technology to drive journalism. The data indicate that
senior reporters and news directors adopt different perspectives
of live newsgathering and that the disparity between the two groups
widens in larger markets. The majority of both groups agree that
"live for the sake of live" takes place with disturbing frequency
in newsrooms across the nation.
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Story Structure
Brosius, Hans-Bernd (1989). Influence of presentation features
and news content on learning from television news. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 33, 1-14.
This study manipulated audio repetition, a/v redundancy, the presence
or absence of video, and the length of the newscast. Audio stories
that included additional information and repetition of major themes
were remembered more correctly and better than those that did not.
David, D. (1996). Role of imagery in recall of deviant news.
Journalism Quarterly, 73, 804-820.
This study looked at newspaper headlines. It found that
deviant (unusual) headlines and headlines that used language high
in imagery are remembered better than non-deviant and low imagery
stories. Related work in the Indiana University Institute for Communication
Research with radio stories shows using words high in imagery
and audio techniques significantly increases attention and memory
for radio messages.
Gunter, B. (1985). Telling the story effectively (chapter 7).
In B. Gunter, Poor Reception: The misunderstanding and forgetting
of broadcast news. Lawrence Erlbaum, Inc.
This chapter suggests that narrative structure is an important
variable in memory for the news. Narrative versions of stories are
remembered better than topical, or standard news versions.
Lang, A. (1989) Effects of Chronological presentation of information
on processing and memory for broadcast news. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 33, 441-452.
Viewers remember more from stories presented in chronological order.
Stories told this way reduce processing load and result in greater
recall of the stories and recognition for the content.
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Newscast
Structure
Behnke, R. & Miller, P. (1992). Viewer reactions to content
and presentational format of television news. Journalism Quarterly,
69, 659 - 666.
This study finds that there is no relationship between segment
placement and level of viewer interest in general. Attention does
not fall off over the course of a 30-minute newscast. News stories
received the highest interest ratings followed by sports with weather
and commercials in last place. News stories of accidents, violence,
and drama as well as commercials with strong visual and musical
support received the highest interest ratings.
Brosius, H. (1991). Format effects on comprehension of television
news. Journalism Quarterly, 68, 396-401.
This study manipulated talking head vs. film (video) stories and
mixed vs. same formats. Results showed that memory was better for
mixed formats compared to same formats, and for film compared to
talking heads. These results were additive, not interactive. This
means, for example, that putting a talking head story between two
stories with video improves memory for the talking head story.
Brosius, Hans-Bernd (1989). Influence of presentation features
and news content on learning from television news. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 33, 1-14.
This study manipulated audio repetition, a/v redundancy, the presence
or absence of video, and the length of the newscast. Stories were
remembered better and understood better in newscasts containing
fewer stories (4) compared to those containing more stories (8).
Gunter, B. (1985). Packaging the programme (chapter 8).
In B. Gunter, Poor Reception: The misunderstanding and forgetting
of broadcast news. Lawrence Erlbaum, Inc.
This chapter discusses several items related to newscast structure
and packaging. First, the serial position effect. This is the effect
that people remember the last things in a list best, the first things
not quite as well, and things in the middle are remembered the least.
This holds true (generally) for newscasts also, but emotional stories
and stories with good video can overcome this general effect. Clustering
similar stories can lead to some confusion and misremembering. It
does not appear to improve viewers’ evaluations of the newscast.
Mundorf, N., Drew, D., Zillmann, D., & Weaver, J. (1990).
Effects of disturbing news on recall of subsequently presented news.
Communication Research, 17(5), 601-615.
This study finds that memory for a story presented following a negative
story is significantly worse than memory for a story presented following
a neutral story. Arousing news appears to cause a cognitive preoccupation
that impairs attention, encoding, and retrieval of news that follows
it. The researchers recommend that broadcasters wait at least four
and a half minutes after an arousing story to present important
public affairs information.
Mundorf, N. and Zillmann, D. (1991). Effects of story sequencing
on affective reactions to broadcast news. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 35, 197-211.
This study finds that emotional stories (both positive and negative)
alter viewers’ evaluation of their affective responses to the stories
that precede and follow the emotional stories. Thus, emotional stories
(positive or negative) make the stories which precede and follow
them appear to be less emotional.
Scott, R. and Goff, F.. (1988). How expectation from prior programming
effects television news recall. Journalism Quarterly, 65,
615-620.
This study shows that when prior programming is arousing, the first
two minutes of the newscast is remembered more poorly, the next
two minutes is remembered best, the last two minutes is in the middle.
Zillmann, D., Gibson, R., Ordman, V. L., and Aust, C. F. (1994).
Effects of upbeat stories in broadcast news. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 38, 65-78.
Newscasts were compared which ended with a humorous story or a
human-interest story or no additional story. Results show that viewers’
rate the earlier stories in the newscast as less important or severe
when the newscast ends with a humorous story.
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Teases, bumpers
and recaps
Bernard, R. M., and Coldevin, G. O. (1985). Effects of recap
strategies on television news recall and retention. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 29, 407-419.
This study compared verbal and audio/visual recaps to no recaps.
It found that the gist, but not the details, of stories with recaps
was remembered better than those without recaps. The two types of
recaps did not differ from one another. The study suggests that
recapping some stories and not others may actually damage memory
for the non-recapped stories (in addition to improving recall of
the recapped stories).
Chang, H. (1998) The effect of news teasers in processing TV
News. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 42, 327-339.
This study found that teasers placed in the program preceding the
news story increased recall and comprehension of the story that
was teased. Whether the teaser was visual or verbal did not appear
to alter the effectiveness of the teaser.
Schleuder, J. D., White, A. V., & Cameron, G. T. (1993).
Priming effects of television news bumpers and teasers on attention
and memory. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 37,
437-452.
This study looked at bumpers (at the beginning of a newscast) and
teasers (before a commercial break). News stories that had teasers,
or bumpers and teasers, were attended to more than news stories
that had no bumpers or teasers. However, those with just bumpers
did not receive more attention. Verbal memory was better for news
stories that had bumpers, teasers, or both.
Son, J., Reese, S. D., and Davie, W. R. (1987). Effects of visual-verbal
redundancy and recaps on television news learning. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 31, 207-216.
Results showed that verbal recaps did not improve memory for stories
in a newscast but did improve comprehension for those stories.
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Disclaimers
and Labeling
Newhagen, J. E. (1994). Effects of televised government censorship
disclaimers on memory and thought elaboration during the Gulf War.
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 38, 339-352.
This study compared war stories with graphic censorship disclaimers
to those without. It found that viewers correctly identified which
stories had disclaimers only 30% of the time. Visual recall for
the stories was not affected. However, viewers made negative comments
about the censoring government more often when the disclaimers were
present.
Slattery, K. and Tiedge, J. T. (1992). The effect of labeling
staged video on the credibility of TV news stories. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 36, 279-286.
The same stories were viewed either with a label saying they were
staged video or without. Credibility for the stories did not vary
unless there was more than one story in a newscast that was labeled.
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Exemplification
Aust, Charles S. and Zillmann, D. (1996). Effects of victim
exemplification to in television news on viewer perception of social
issues. Journalism Quarterly, 73, pp. 787-804.
There were three versions of stories: without victim exemplification,
with an unemotional victim exemplification, and emotional victim
exemplification. The dependent variables included severity of the
problem, likelihood of being a local problem, likelihood of personal
risk. The use of emotional victims increased viewers’ assessment
of problem severity, risk to self and sense of distress.
Zillmann, D., Gibson, R., Sundar, S. and Perkins, W. (1996).
Effects of exemplification in news reports on the perception of
social issues. Journalism Quarterly, 73, pp. 427-444.
This newspaper study shows that the number of examples has
more impact on reader estimates of the frequency of family farm
failures than does base rate information. That is, readers thought
the situation was more serious if they saw more examples of the
problem, even when the underlying statistical information presented
was the same.
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Management
Anzur, T., Murphy, S., & Scheter, M. (2001, August). Diversity
in Local Television News: A clogged pipeline? Paper submitted to
the Radio-Television Journalism division of the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, DC.
The authors surveyed television news directors in markets ranked
between 100th and 150th nationally, where aspiring TV news anchors
and reporters often get their first jobs. Entry-level hiring is
done primarily by white males and reflects their perceptions of
the local audience, the perceived difficulty of finding qualified
applicants and the low priority placed on diversity. Women and minorities
are under-represented among actual hires, contributing to an industry-wide
shortage of diverse on-air talent.
Daniels, G. (2001, August). What managers do: The relationship
between what managers do and how newsroom workers respond in times
of change. Paper submitted to the Media Management and Economics
division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication, Washington, DC.
Based on a survey of workers at CNN Headline News, where six major
changes occurred simultaneously in 1998, information about how change
relates to long-term goals was, by far, the most valuable predictor
of how newsroom workers might respond to change. There was no relationship
between an employee's perceived level of communication and how likely
an employee is to quit in a time of change.
Engstrom, E. and Ferri, A.J. (2001). Looking through a gendered
lens: Local U.S. television news anchors; perceived career barriers.
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 44(4), 614-634.
The authors surveyed 246 local television news anchors to examine
their perceptions of hindrances to their career progress. Women
anchors' highest-rated barrier was the overemphasis on their physical
appearance. Men ranked the lack of professional networks and support
groups as the highest. Career barriers ranked highly by anchors
of both sexes included maintaining a balance between work and family
life, conflicting roles of wife/mother or father/husband and professional
newscaster, and relocation.
Greer, J., & Williams, K. (1999, August). Has the salary gap
closed? A survey of men and women managers at U.S. television stations.
Paper submitted to the Radio-Television Journalism division of the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
A survey of 169 general managers, general sales managers, news
directors, and program managers at the nation's television stations
found that while more women have reached the industry's top ranks,
they still report lower salaries, fewer benefits, and feelings of
having less authority than male managers. However, when personal
(gender, education, and age) and job characteristics (including
market size and job title) were entered into a regression analysis,
gender was a significant predictor only for salary.
Hollifield, C.A., Kosicki, G.M., and Becker, L.B. (2000). Organizational
vs. professional culture in the newsroom: Television news directors'
and newspaper editors' hiring decisions. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 45(1), 92.
Media critics argue that corporate values dominate newsroom decisions.
This study tests that argument using national surveys to compare
television news directors' and newspaper editors' hiring practices.
The study examined whether news executives seek employees with characteristics
valued by the organizational culture or those valued by the professional
culture of journalism. The data show that news executives emphasize
hiring people based on personality and work habits over any professional
characteristic except language skills.
Powers, A. (2001). Toward monopolistic competition in U.S. local
television news. Journal of Media Economics, 14(2), 77-86.
This article analyzes the market structure of large, medium,
and small market stations by looking at changes in the market shares
and number of competitors. Findings suggest that in smaller markets
only the most financially secure, number-one-rated stations will
risk adding more time for news to their programming. In top-10 markets,
where the financial stakes are higher, trailing stations compete
by increasing their news presence during the day.
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Other Studies
Graber, D. (1988). Processing the News: How People Tame the
Information Tide. New York: Longman. Notes on this study
are available
online.
Gunter, B. (1979). Recall of television news items: Effects
of presentation mode, picture content and serial position. Journal
of Educational Television, 5, 57-61.
Gunter, B., Berry, C., & Clifford, B. (1981). Release from
proactive interference with television news items: Further evidence.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human learning and memory,
7, 480-487.
Gunter, B., Berry, C. & Clifford, B. (1982). Remembering
broadcast news: The implications of experimental research for production
technique. Human Learning, 1, 13-29.
Gunter, B., Clifford, B., & Berry, C. (1980). Release from
proactive interference with television news items: Evidence for
encoding dimensions within televised news. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: human learning and memory ,6, 216-223.
Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. R. (1987). News that matters.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Robinson, J. P., Davis, D., Sahin, H. & O'Toole, T. (1980) Comprehension
of television news: How alert is the audience? Paper presented to
the Association for Education in Journalism.
Robinson, J. P., Sahin, H. & Davis, D. (1980). Television
journalists and their audiences. In J.S. Ettema & D.C. Whitney
(Eds), Individuals in mass media organizations: creativity and
constraint.
Stauffer, J., Frost, R. & Rybolt, W. (1983). The attention
factor in recalling network television news. Journal of Communication,
33, 29-37.
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