P.G.J. Hendriks Vettehen

The Influence of Age and Gender on Preferences for Negative Content and Tabloid Packaging in Television News Stories

This study aimed at answering the question whether preferences for negative content and a tabloid production style in television news stories vary with different age groups and gender. An experiment with 288 participants was conducted. As expected, results showed that age and gender moderated the influence of negative content and tabloid packaging on the viewers’ preferences. Compared with middle-aged and older viewers, young viewers had a stronger preference for negative content rather than neutral content. Preferences for tabloid packaging rather than standard packaging were stronger for men than for women.

Arousing news characteristics in Dutch television news 1990-2004: an exploration of competitive strategies

This study investigates the processes by which competition in the television news market might promote the presence of arousing characteristics in television news. A total of 3,024 news stories from six Dutch television news programs over the period 1990 to 2004 were investigated through content analysis. The findings of the study show overall increases in all 6 arousing characteristics. The findings also show that commercial newcomers included more arousing characteristics in their news stories than the public service broadcasters, that commercial newcomers developed a news format that featured more arousing characteristics, and that existing programs reacted to newcomers by increasing the amount of arousing characteristics in their news stories.

Enjoyment of arousing television news: The role of age and sensation seeking

Abstract This study investigated the role of television news as entertainment by focusing on the enjoyment that viewers experience while watching television news stories. In particular, the study examined the relationship between arousing news stories and enjoyment, and explored the potential moderating role of age and sensation seeking. Participants (N = 288) watched four news stories and reported both their feelings of arousal and their enjoyment of each story. An ∩-shaped relationship between arousal and enjoyment was found. This relationship was not moderated by sensation seeking, but it was moderated by age: The level of arousal at which enjoyment reached its maximum was higher in younger viewers.

Proving the obvious? What sensationalism contributes to the time spent on news video

This study investigates the truism that sensationalism in news is a guarantee for success in terms of selling the story to the public. More specifically, it investigates the impact of sensationalist content and packaging features on news viewing behavior. A web-based experiment among 190 participants was conducted in which participants could watch a maximum of 16 news stories that varied in content (neutral vs. negative stories) and packaging (standard vs. tabloid stories). The viewing time per news story was the dependent variable. Results show that sensationalism stimulates viewing time, but also that there are limits to the power of sensationalism. In all, the truism about sensationalism as a guarantee for success appears to be largely true, but not completely.

Forecasted economic change and the self-fulfilling prophecy in economic decision-making

This study addresses the self-fulfilling prophecy effect, in the domain of economic decision-making. We present experimental data in support of the hypothesis that speculative forecasts of economic change can impact individuals’ economic decision behavior, prior to any realized changes. In a within-subjects experiment, participants (N = 40) played 180 trials in a Balloon Analogue Risk Talk (BART) in which they could make actual profit. Simple messages about possible (positive and negative) changes in outcome probabilities of future trials had significant effects on measures of risk taking (number of inflations) and actual profits in the game. These effects were enduring, even though no systematic changes in actual outcome probabilities took place following any of the messages. Risk taking also found to be reflected in reaction times revealing increasing reaction times with riskier decisions. Positive and negative economic forecasts affected reaction times slopes differently, with negative forecasts resulting in increased reaction time slopes as a function of risk. These findings suggest that forecasted positive or negative economic change can bias people’s mental model of the economy and reduce or stimulate risk taking. Possible implications for media-fulfilling prophecies in the domain of the economy are considered.