The Influence of News Tickers on Remembering the Remaining Elements of Television Coverage

Agata Karaśkiewicz, Michał Lubawy

Pełny tekst artykułu English version of the article

The objective of research presented in the article was determining to what extent television viewers direct their gaze at so-called news tickers and other image objects appearing on screen, and how their presence influences remembering the remaining elements of the audiovisual message. An experiment was conducted on a group of 60 people, in which each participant was asked to watch a short news report and fill out a questionnaire. Half of the group watched a message similar to that aired on television, while the other – a fabricated message, devoid of the mentioned image elements. With the use of an eye tracker, the eye fixation on the footage was registered. After the screening, participants filled out a questionnaire concerning, among others, the reporter’s statements, objects visible in the footage and information on the news tickers. It was concluded that watching the feature, the viewer directed his gaze mostly on the reporter and footage, not the tickers. Additionally, viewers took various amounts of time watching certain types of images, rarely looking at information scrolled vertically in the lower left part of the screen than on the tickers scrolled horizontally on nearly its entire length. People who watched the fabricated report did not remember more information from the audiovisual channel than those who saw the original piece.

KEYWORDS

perception, news, television transmission, news tickers, live coverage