This study investigates the truism that sensationalism in news is a guarantee for success in terms of selling the story to the public. More specifically, it investigates the impact of sensationalist content and packaging features on news viewing behavior. A web-based experiment among 190 participants was conducted in which participants could watch a maximum of 16 news stories that varied in content (neutral vs. negative stories) and packaging (standard vs. tabloid stories). The viewing time per news story was the dependent variable. Results show that sensationalism stimulates viewing time, but also that there are limits to the power of sensationalism. In all, the truism about sensationalism as a guarantee for success appears to be largely true, but not completely.

中文翻译：

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证明显而易见？耸人听闻对新闻视频花费的时间有何影响

本研究调查了这样一个真理，即新闻中的耸人听闻是向公众推销故事成功的保证。更具体地说，它调查了耸人听闻的内容和包装特征对新闻观看行为的影响。在 190 名参与者中进行了一项基于网络的实验，参与者最多可以观看 16 个内容（中性与负面故事）和包装（标准与小报故事）不同的新闻故事。每个新闻故事的观看时间是因变量。结果表明，耸人听闻会刺激观看时间，但也表明耸人听闻的力量是有限的。总而言之，关于轰动效应作为成功保证的真理似乎在很大程度上是正确的，但并不完全正确。