Using Protocol Analysis in Television News Research: Proposal and First Tests

Up to now, research on the processing of television news by its viewers has concentrated on assessing people's ability to reproduce news items; i.e., measuring one's ability to recall a news fact. Measuring recall ability, as well as assessing the accuracy of this recall is based on what researchers designate as the important part(s) of a news item. Although this type of research has yielded important results, some authors feel that it invokes a somewhat limited view of what people do' with the news. These authors argue that processing the news is an active, interpretive process by which viewers make sense of the information. It may be useful to take the viewer's perspective into account when studying the processing of television news for it may provide with much additional information. This article presents an alternative way to study the processing of television news: protocol analysis, i.e., using verbalizations of thoughts as data. Results of a small scale pilot study show that one type of protocol analysis, the Thought-Listing Technique has more potential than another type, called Thinking-Aloud Method.