Rhonda Gibson

Exaggerated Versus Representative Exemplification in News Reports Perception of Issues and Personal Consequences

A news report on carjacking, presented in magazine format, was manipulated to create versions differing in exemplar distortion (minimally, mildly, substantially, and extremely) and precision of base rate information (imprecise, precise). Time of assessment (immediate, delayed) was varied as well. Readers evaluated carjacking as a national issue, as likely to worsen, as a local danger, and as a personal threat. They also estimated the proportion of carjacking victims suffering injury. The readers eventually rated aspects of the news report. Readers of news featuring extreme exemplar distortion considered carjacking to be a more serious national problem than did readers of news featuring minimally, mildly, or substantially distorted exemplars. This effect was uniform for precision of base rate information and was stable over time. Readers presented with exemplars of people killed during carjackings grossly overestimated the incidence of such an outcome. Additionally, they found the report more upsetting than did readers presented with less extreme exemplars. There were no significant differences, however, in evaluations of newsworthiness, importance, or accuracy of the various versions of the report.

The Agenda-Setting Function of National Versus Local Media: A Time-Series Analysis for the Issue of Same-Sex Marriage

This study compares the agenda-setting effects of national and local media on public salience in a market where an issue was both local and national with the effects in a market where it was primarily national. A new measure of public salience is also introduced. Results indicate that agenda-setting effects of local and national media are very different, with local media exerting a stronger agenda-setting influence when the issue is both local and national.

Loneliness of Adolescents and Their Choice and Enjoyment of Love-Celebrating Versus Love-Lamenting Popular Music

Black and White male and female high-school students reported their enjoyment of various love-lamenting and love-celebrating videos of popular romantic music. The student groups were subdivided into high versus low loneliness in terms of romantic deprivation. Loneliness proved inconsequential for the enjoyment of love-lamenting songs. Love-celebrating songs, however, were markedly less enjoyed by highly lonely males than by less lonely males; in contrast, these love-celebrating songs were more enjoyed by highly lonely females than by less lonely females. Reports of music choices in hypothetical situations of romantic success and failure yielded strikingly differed results. Most students indicated that they would make mood-congruent choices; that is, that they would match the musics mood to their own.

The Impact of Quotation in News Reports on Issue Perception

Respondents presented with news reports containing one-sided direct personal testimony challenging the safety of amusement parks perceived the overall safety of such parks to be less adequate than respondents given the same information in indirect testimony or those presented with no testimony at all. This effect emerged only for print reports, not radio.

Effects of upbeat stories in broadcast news

This study examines the effects of upbeat news items on the assessment of the severity of the issues presented in hard‐news reports. The experimental newscast ended either without an additional item, with a human‐interest story, or with a humorous story. Respondents rated the severity of the issues addressed and the extent to which the issues might affect them personally. The humorous newscast‐closing story, but not the human‐interest story, led respondents to evaluate the issues as less severe. Assessments of personal vulnerability were not appreciably influenced by these newscast‐closing upbeat stories, however.

Effects of Salient News Items on Information Acquisition and Issue Perception

Abstract. A medical news report was manipulated to project either Alabama or Texas as the target region for the outbreak of a new (fictitious) disease. Residents of Alabama and Texas responded to these reports, making the report of the threat to their respective territories relevant to them, while rendering the report of the threat to other regions of the country comparatively irrelevant. Regionally defined issue salience was found to foster superior acquisition of both quantitative and qualitative information of diagnostic value. Issue salience also led to estimates of greater danger to the public and self. It increased the perceived newsworthiness and usefulness of the reports as well. These findings suggest that issue salience motivates attention to, and the acquisition of, diagnostically relevant information that tends to be poorly processed or ignored under conditions of insufficient relevance.

How to Report Quantitative Information in News Stories

Researchers tested various ways of presenting numerical information in news stories and how math aptitude affects recall, if at all. The study suggests that both the audience and journalists need to be better prepared to deal with numbers.

Effects of Sources in Coverage of Same-Sex Marriage

This study tested whether perceived prestige of sources about a controversial issue could influence reader opinion. Reader opinions of same-sex marriage did not differ across three conditions.

Effects of Differences in Numeric Ability on the Perception of Adversity Risk to Others and Self

This study used an experimental news report about confrontational robberies by adolescent groups in Mexican resorts that presented statistics with or without personalized cases of victimization. Study participants estimated the risk of harm to victims and the extent of their suffering. They also indicated their own risk and concern for their own safety. The readers’ numeric ability was ascertained thereafter. A trisection of this ability showed that persons of high ability comparatively overestimated others’ risk but underestimated their own; this despite indicating greater concerns for their own safety. These results were not altered by consideration of the readers’ empathic, experiential, and rational traits. The incorporation of personalized cases of victimization in the news report did not appreciably influence risk assessments. The involvement of cases resulting in major bodily injury, however, increased estimates of the incidence of such robberies.