TY - JOUR
T1 - “Affective News” and Attitudes
T2 - A Multi-Topic Experiment of Attitude Impacts From Political News and Fiction
AU - Knobloch-Westerwick, Silvia
AU - Robinson, Melissa
AU - Frazer, Rebecca
AU - Schutz, Emily
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 AEJMC.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Popular entertainment often involves political messages, and entertainment elements are now commonly used in politics coverage. This study examines how suspense drives impacts of political entertainment media content on attitudes, building on the “affective news” extended model. Hypotheses were tested with four texts on controversial political issues (within-subjects), presented in a linear or inverted-pyramid structure and either as news or fiction. The resulting 2 × 2 × 3 × 4 online experiment (N = 227) showed that linear texts produced greater suspense and attitude change than inverted-pyramid texts. Suspense mediated attitude impacts. Both news and fiction versions influenced attitudes, with impacts still detectable 1 day after exposure.
AB - Popular entertainment often involves political messages, and entertainment elements are now commonly used in politics coverage. This study examines how suspense drives impacts of political entertainment media content on attitudes, building on the “affective news” extended model. Hypotheses were tested with four texts on controversial political issues (within-subjects), presented in a linear or inverted-pyramid structure and either as news or fiction. The resulting 2 × 2 × 3 × 4 online experiment (N = 227) showed that linear texts produced greater suspense and attitude change than inverted-pyramid texts. Suspense mediated attitude impacts. Both news and fiction versions influenced attitudes, with impacts still detectable 1 day after exposure.
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U2 - 10.1177/1077699020932883
DO - 10.1177/1077699020932883
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089402636
SN - 1077-6990
VL - 98
SP - 1078
EP - 1103
JO - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
JF - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -