ABSTRACT

Hitherto no study has investigated the impact of constructive television journalism on affections and cognition of adult viewers. Having conducted a quasi-experimental online survey in cooperation with West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR), this paper attempts to close this gap. To measure the impact a sample of 480 people were exposed to three differently emotionalizing news topics. For each of them, three item variations were created. They consist of an individual solution, a meta-solution, and no solution. The study shows that constructive TV-pieces have a positive emotional effect on viewers. This finding is particularly pronounced for news items with an individual solution. The comparison of the results for item variations with a meta-solution or no solution did not yield conclusive evidence. Negative emotions are reduced in news items that contain individual or meta-solutions. This effect is weaker for the latter when compared to news items without solutions.

摘要

迄今为止，还没有研究调查建设性电视新闻对成年观众的情感和认知的影响。在与西德广播公司 (WDR) 合作进行了一项准实验性在线调查后，本文试图缩小这一差距。为了衡量影响，480 人样本被暴露在三个不同的情绪化新闻话题中。对于它们中的每一个，创建了三个项目变体。它们由单独的解决方案、元解决方案和无解决方案组成。研究表明，建设性的电视节目对观众有积极的情感影响。对于具有单独解决方案的新闻项目，这一发现尤其明显。项目变异的结果与元解决方案或无解决方案的比较没有产生确凿的证据。在包含个人或元解决方案的新闻项目中，负面情绪会减少。与没有解决方案的新闻项目相比，这种效果对后者更弱。