Factors Affecting Viewers' Perceptions of Sensationalism in Television News: A Survey Study in Taiwan

Using national survey data, this study examines factors that affect Taiwanese television viewers' perceptions of sensationalism in TV news. Findings indicate that TV formal features, channel selection, motivations for watching TV news, and viewers' demographics are significant factors that influence viewers' perceptions of sensationalism. Compared to other news topics, "gossip" was identified as the most sensational news topic. Concerning TV news formal features, the more audio, visual, and editing production features in the programs, the more sensational the news was perceived to be. In addition, cable news viewers perceive news content as more sensational than viewers of terrestrial television. Finally, information-oriented, older, and more highly educated viewers tend to perceive television news as more sensational. This paper further discusses the more universal implications of these findings. KE YWORDS: sensationalism; tabloid news; television news; audience research.

[1]  Local Public Affairs Content of TV News , 1978 .

[2]  M. Zuckerman.  Sensation Seeking : Beyond the Optimal Level of Arousal , 1979 .

[3]  Y. Pasadeos.  Application of Measures of Sensationalism to a Murdoch-Owned Daily in the San Antonio Market , 1984 .

[4]  N. Postman,et al.  "Mix a Little Folly with Your Wisdom"--Horace@@@Children and Television.@@@Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. , 1987 .

[5]  Andrew Kohut,et al.  BELIEVABILITY AND THE PRESS , 1988 .

[6]  K. Mills.  A Place in the News: From the Women's Pages to the Front Page , 1988 .

[7]  E. Wartella,et al.  Newspapers and citizenship: Young adults’ subjective experience of newspapers , 1991 .

[8]  A. Rubin.  Media uses and effects: A uses-and-gratifications perspective. , 1994 .

[9]  Ernest A. Hakanen,et al.  Trend: Sensationalism versus public affairs content of local TV news: Pennsylvania revisited , 1994 .

[10]  B. Pfetsch.  Convergence Through Privatization? , 1996 .

[11]  Matthew C. Ehrlich.  The journalism of outrageousness : tabloid television news vs. investigative news , 1996 .

[12]  K. Merikangas,et al.  Substance abuse, comorbidity, and sensation seeking: gender differences. , 1996, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[13]  Michael D. Basil,et al.  College students’ news gratifications, media use, and current events knowledge , 1997 .

[14]  M. U. Dsilva.  Individual differences and choice of information source: Sensation seeking in drug abuse prevention , 1999 .

[15]  Annie Lang,et al.  Packaging Television News: The Effects of Tabloid on Information Processing and Evaluative Responses , 2000 .

[16]  Colin Sparks,et al.  Tabloid tales: global debates over media standards , 2000 .

[17]  Maria Elizabeth Grabe,et al.  Explicating Sensationalism in Television News: Content and the Bells and Whistles of Form , 2001 .

[18]  Larry Powell,et al.  Cable Television News Viewed as Most Credible , 2001 .

[19]  John R. Baseheart,et al.  Perceived Message Sensation Value (PMSV) and the Dimensions and Validation of a PMSV Scale , 2002, Health communication.

[20]  David K. Perry.  Perceptions of Sensationalism among U.S. and Mexican News Audiences , 2002 .

[21]  Annie Lang,et al.  News Content and Form , 2003, Commun. Res..

[22]  H. Davis,et al.  Why humans value sensational news: An evolutionary perspective , 2003 .

[23]  Roger D. Klein,et al.  Audience Reactions to Local TV News , 2003 .

[24]  Erik P. Bucy,et al.  Media Credibility Reconsidered: Synergy Effects between On-Air and Online News , 2003 .

[25]  Steve Michael Barkin,et al.  American television news : the media marketplace and the public interest , 2016 .

[26]  Mine Gencel Bek.  Research Note: Tabloidization of News Media , 2004 .

[27]  Paul Hendriks Vettehen,et al.  News in an Age of Competition: The Case of Sensationalism in Dutch Television News, 1995–2001 , 2005 .

[28]  Y. Öngen.  The Relationships Between Sensation Seeking and Gender Role Orientations Among Turkish University Students , 2007 .