Article: Interacting with news: Exploring the effects of modality and perceived responsiveness and control on news source credibility and enjoyment among second screen viewers.
Author: Michael A. Horning
Presentation Leader: Ri
Summary:
As the technology has created new media of communication, traditional news media have also sought ways to make use of them. According to a study, 46 percent of smartphone owners and 43 percent of tablet owners reported using their devices while watching TV every day. This led to the introduction of second-screen, dual screen, or multiscreen viewing, a type of user experience where the user gets the primary content from the primary screen while simultaneously involving them into user interaction via mobile/tablet device. By expanding telecasting contents on the mobile devices, the organizers get more attention from their audience, both in terms of participation and comprehension. This incident is seen in ads during live shows, sports networks’ second screen interviews, and CNN’s QR codes on live TV, which directed to online content, etc.
Although in a prior study showed that almost half of the population owning a smartphone or a tablet mentioned that they use their devices while watching TV, a later study showed that almost 80% of the users use their second screen to view unrelated contents. On top of that, 66% of all national journalists expressed their concerns about new technologies hurting coverage. In order to make newsrooms capable of adapting to innovations, this research paper [1] raises two important questions. Firstly, whether the additional second screen adds new extent to the enjoyment of the viewers. And secondly, if the second screen content adds more credibility to the source of the news.
In the recent times, several pieces of research have been conducted on second screen content viewing. In a research conducted on 2014 [2], the authors found second screening made it difficult to recall and comprehend news content by increasing cognitive loads, whereas a later research in 2016 [3] showed the second screen rather strengthened users perception of both news and drama. Some researchers have credited the novelty of the experience of new technology, whereas some the interaction, and varying levels of modality as the success of the second screening.
From all these prior researches and much more, the author of the article [1] established six hypothesis in total. The author tested his hypothesis on 83 college-aged students (32 males, 51 females) with a method involving two original news. Both of the news videos were similar in nature with the exception of the last part. In one of the videos, the anchor invites the users manually go to a website to view related stories, whereas, in the other video, the users were invited to scan the TV using an iPad. The prior video was identified as the Low Modal Interactivity and the later video as High Modal Interactivity.
The table below shows the six hypotheses and the research findings:
| # | Hypothesis | Results |
| H1 | Second screen experiences with higher modality will be rated as more enjoyable than second screen experiences with lower modality | Contradict |
| H2 | Second screen experiences with higher modality will be rated as more credible than second screen experiences with lower modality | Contradict |
| H3a | Second screen users that perceive the experience to be more highly interactive measured by perceived control will rate news content as more enjoyable than those who perceive it to be less interactive | Support |
| H3b | Second screen users that perceive the experience to be more highly interactive measured by perceived responsiveness will rate news content more enjoyable than those who perceive it to be less interactive | Support |
| H4a | Second screen users that perceive the experience to be more highly interactive measured by perceived control will rate news content as more credible than those who perceive it to be less interactive | Support |
| H4b | Second screen users that perceive the experience to be more highly interactive measured by perceived responsiveness will rate news content as more credible than those who perceive it to be less interactive | Support |
| H5 | Second screen experiences that have higher modality and higher perceived interactivity will be rated more positively and be perceived as more enjoyable | Partial support |
| H6 | Second screen experiences that have higher modality and higher perceived interactivity will be rated more positively and be perceived as more credible | Partial support |
Reflection:
Second screen viewing allows the user to interact with the media and giving them the opportunity to get involved with the means of communication. It transforms the lethargic viewer into somewhat active participator by providing some mean of control and interaction. Second screening may also make the contents of the primary screening more enjoyable and more credible since it allows the users with the option of elaborating on the information. Even the novelty of the experience might play some role in making the contents more enjoyable and more credible.
I liked how the author tries to explore several characteristics of second screen viewing through several related papers. The author does a good job of explaining so many prior works involving second screen viewing and even communication and journalism in general. Some of the researchers had opposite notion to each other, and I liked the author’s effort in bringing both kinds of research in the context of second screen viewing.
In my opinion, the author also did a commendable work of setting the premise of the research. I find the six hypothesis equally interesting and worth addressing. What intrigued me though is the way the author tried to design his experiment design for the research. As a second screen viewing, the author chose two scenarios where Low Model Interactivity is identified as clicking links manually with the contrast of High Model Interactivity as scanning the screen with iPad. And finally, to assess the situation, the participants were prompted with a questionnaire. The reason why it intrigued me is that among the 83 participants, 55.5% of them indicated that they had never used QR Codes prior to this research. I also find it interesting that the research did not have any gender effect according to the author.
The findings of the research were interesting in my opinion. The first two hypotheses of the experiment focuses on how structural effects impact news enjoyment and news credibility. Surprisingly, the result suggests that the modality did not emerge as a significant predictor of either news enjoyment or credibility. For the latter hypotheses, second screen users that perceive the experience to be more highly interactive measured by perceived control and by perceived responsiveness rated news content as both more enjoyable and more credible. The final two hypotheses were also partially supported by the research depicting second screen experience to more positive, enjoyable, and credible. In both cases of this two hypothesis, the interaction between modality and perceived responsiveness was not significant, however, the interaction between modality and perceived control was.
Questions:
- Prior researches suggest higher modality in second screen experiences to be rated more enjoyable and more credible. However, the findings of this research suggest otherwise. Why do you think it is?
- Among the participants, 55.5% mentioned they had never used QR Codes in their life. Do you reckon previous experience or the lack thereof might have impacted the results?
- How do you think multiple interactions over a longer period of time might change our perception as an audience?
References:
[1] Horning, M.A., 2017. Interacting with news: Exploring the effects of modality and perceived responsiveness and control on news source credibility and enjoyment among second screen viewers. Computers in Human Behavior, 73, pp.273-283.
[2] Van Cauwenberge, A., Schaap, G. and Van Roy, R., 2014. “TV no longer commands our full attention”: Effects of second-screen viewing and task relevance on cognitive load and learning from news. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, pp.100-109.
[3] Choi, B. and Jung, Y., 2016. The effects of second-screen viewing and the goal congruency of supplementary content on user perceptions. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, pp.347-354.
