YOU, ME OR TV: WHO'S FAILING THE NEWS TEST

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YOU, ME OR TV WHO'S FAILING THE NEWS TEST?

• Akiba Cohen
• Department of Communication
• Tel Aviv University

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Propositions

• Based on research in a variety of countries
  (including Shoemaker Cohen, forthcoming) TV
  news is still the major source of information for
  most people.
• Understanding the news on TV is (or at least
  ought to be) considered as a prerequisite to
  using the news for intelligent decision-making.

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Hypotheses

• The conventional hypothesis in Third Person
  Effect research people attribute more or
  greater negative effects of mass media to others
  than to themselves.
• My non-conventional (original?) hypothesis
  regarding a possible positive Third Person Effect
  people attribute better understanding of mass
  media (specifically TV news) to themselves than
  to others.

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Why is understanding TV new an issue? Or why is
it difficult to understand TV news?
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Content Features

• Great variability of topics
• Complex issues
• Social conflicts complexity, intensity, lack of
  solvability
• Graphic footage
• Domestic and foreign

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Audience Characteristics

• Different reasons for viewing
• Different interest levels
• Idiosyncratic repertoires, experiences and
  knowledge
• Different available schemas
• Different levels of education, etc.

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Presentation Features

• Very brief items
• Numerous cuts and changes of scenes
• No break and reflection time between items
• Audio/visual mismatches
• Speed of speech
• Brief soundbites
• Use of unfamiliar acronyms and concepts
• Voice over and natural sound
• Computer graphics statistics, charts

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I havent recently examined whether people
actually understand the news but in previous
work (e.g., Adoni Cohen, 1978) as well as many
other mostly experimental studies on news, it
was found that people indeed have problems
understanding much of the the news.
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Current survey June 2005

• Conducted by Market Watch
• Part of Omnibus Survey
• Jewish adults 18
• n500

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Open Questions

• Is the perception of understanding the news
  related to the perceived impact of the news?
• Assuming that people are still watching TV news,
  what can be done to increase the level of
  understanding?
• If news can be better understood, will the gap
  between self and others decrease?

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Thank you!