Student Researchers: Katie Mayer (BA Student). This paper was based on an undergraduate Independent study.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Introduction
The effect of multimodality on news processing is a topic that has gained a great deal of recent attention. Recent studies have focused on comprehension and recall of online news, and the effects of different computer texts on readers' recall and memory of web advertising. New technological advances make it possible to not only read,but also watch and listen to news on the web. The present study examines the effect of multimodality on content comprehension (recall and recognition) of online news stories. In addition, the study also considers the effect of multimodality with respect to recall and recognition of online advertisements.
Hypothesis
Since past research pertaining to multimodality and news processing is slightly ambiguous, no specific hypotheses were proposed. However, based on prior research on web advertising, it was hypothesized that:
Participants will have a low recall but high recognition for online advertisements. As the number of modalities increases, so will the score on advertising recognition.
Method
Ninety-one participants took part in a between-participants experiment. After participants were seated in front of a computer terminal, they were asked to switch on the monitor and go through the website that came up. Six sessions were run where each group of participants received a different condition of modality: text only, text with pictures, text with audio, text with audio and pictures, and text with video and pictures. The same news stories and advertisements were displayed regardless of the modality assigned to the particular condition. After browsing through the website, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire that included measures of recall and recognition for both news content as well as advertising memory.
Results
The correct responses were summed up to create an overall 'Memory' index. In addition, additional indices were created for individual news stories and advertisements.
The results indicate that participants in conditions that did not contain audio or video downloads had higher memory for news content than those participants in conditions with audio or video downloads. For advertising memory, however, an opposite pattern was found. Specifically, participants in conditions that contained more modalities had significantly higher overall ad memory scores than those participants in conditions with lesser modalities.
Conclusions
The results have implications for both online news and advertisements. For example, it might be a waste of resources to include audio or video downloads for news content. However, advertisers on websites may find it profitable to include a greater number of modalities.
For more details/information about this study, please contact:
Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Associate Professor and Director
Media Effects Research Laboratory
College of Communications
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ph: (814) 865 2173
E-mail: sss12@psu.edu
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