Do multimedia matter? Cognitive and affective effects of embedded multimedia journalism.

Author(s)
Hanna Pincus, Magdalena Wojcieszak, Hajo Boomgaarden
Abstract

With the increase of online journalism, embedded multimedia stories have become more popular. Yet, little is known about the cognitive and affective effects this journalistic format may have on the audience. This experimental study compares the effects of embedded multimedia, traditional multimedia, and text-only format on readers' knowledge gain, emotional reactions, and narrative transportation. Overall, the effects are substantially less pronounced than expected. The audiences' emotional reactions and narrative transportation do not depend on modality, whereas knowledge gain is slightly decreased by multimodality. The theoretical, practical, and methodological implications of these limited effects are discussed.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
External organisation(s)
University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Journal
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume
94
Pages
747-771
No. of pages
25
ISSN
1077-6990
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699016654679
Publication date
06-2016
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508012 Media impact studies
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Communication
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/3d0e4079-411e-4137-a01a-fadb7447eb9d