| Abstract: | Nine television news stories were presented to 60 college students under three different visual format treatment conditions: newscaster‐only presentation, newscaster‐plus‐film or newscaster‐plus‐stills. Detailed information gain from the news stories was tested using a 27‐item multiple‐choice questionnaire which was administered immediately after viewing. It was found that overall learning was slightly, though not significantly, poorer from stories accompanied by picture materials than from those presented by the newscaster alone. It is suggested that news editors assumptions about the effects of pictorial material upon news impact may be only partially correct. |
