792272 research-article2018 JMQXXX10.1177/1077699018792272Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlyDeAngelo and Yegiyan Regular Issue: Original Article Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 1­–21 © 2018 AEJMC Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018792272 DOI: 10.1177/1077699018792272 jmcq.sagepub.com Looking for Efficiency: How Online News Structure and Emotional Tone Influence Processing Time and Memory Tessa I. DeAngelo1 and Narine S. Yegiyan1 Abstract The research reported here investigates how news story structure and emotional tone affect news story processing efficiency. Two theoretical frameworks employing the forced-choice paradigm and the free-choice paradigm are used to pose competing hypotheses about how news writing structure (inverted pyramid versus narrative) affects story reading time and memory. Participants browsed a website featuring target news stories. Time spent reading stories and story recall was measured. Participants spent less time reading stories with an inverted pyramid structure yet recalled these stories better than stories in a narrative structure, supporting the freechoice processing framework. Keywords online message processing, inverted pyramid, news websites, limited capacity model With the rise of the digital age, information saturation has become a central characteristic of today’s modern society, leaving many feeling overwhelmed and overloaded (Bawden & Robinson, 2009; Holton & Chyi, 2012; York, 2013). An abundance of news information, in particular, is now widely proliferated across a number of digital news outlets (Pew Research Center, 2011). Users seek to prioritize efficiency—spending less 1University of California, Davis, USA Corresponding Author: Tessa I. DeAngelo, Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Email: tideangelo@ucdavis.edu 2 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) time with the news website while learning a lot—when deciding how to allocate limited cognitive resources to news. Understanding how journalistic writing techniques can best satisfy this need for efficiency can improve both news story visibility and comprehension. The study reported here is an attempt in this direction. The structure of a news story is a production technique often utilized by journalists to convey stories effectively (Brooks, Kennedy, Moen, & Ranly, 2008). Journalists have long considered packaging news reports across two contending news writing formats: the narrative structure versus the inverted pyramid structure. These formats largely differ in story element organization: Whereas a narrative organization places emphasis on storytelling and chronology, an inverted pyramid form organizes story elements according to order of newsworthiness and importance, such that it begins with a summative lead containing the most important information followed by story elements arranged in descending order of importance (Brooks et al., 2008). The effects of these structures have previously been compared in offline presentation formats, such as in television and print (Emde, Klimmt, & Schluetz, 2016; Lang, 1989), and in online formats through computer displays (Wise, Bolls, Myers, & Sternadori, 2009; Yaros & Cook, 2011). However, these studies exposed participants to news stories in forced-choice contexts, where information was presented in a controlled manner such that viewers had little control over the pace and/or order of news presentation. No study to our knowledge, thus far, has explored how these structures— the inverted pyramid versus narrative—affect memory and information processing efficiency in a more generalizable research setting where users have the freedom to control the order of news exposure. The primary goal of this article, therefore, is to determine which of these news structures improve online information processing. Specifically, when users navigate news in an online setting, which structure maximizes processing efficiency in terms of improving story recall and reducing cognitive effort? To address this question, this study will assess and compare effects of the inverted pyramid structure and the narrative structure on users’ time spent reading and memory (free recall) for online news content. This study draws on the assumption that news consumers have a finite number of cognitive resources to devote to information processing and that message characteristics affect such processing. Building on prior research conducted within the theoretical framework of the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP; Lang, 2006), which suggests message characteristics activate cognitive motivational systems and affect resource allocation, this study outlines how these two structures affect resource allocation. Specifically, this study draws from two lines of research to pose competing hypotheses with regard to their affect on cognitive effort and memory: One line suggests that a narrative structure will reduce time spent reading and improve memory for story content, whereas the other suggests that an inverted pyramid structure will reduce time spent reading and improve memory for story content, as it may better suit user behavior in an online environment. Therefore, we designed a study to test which of these is likely to be true. Furthermore, this study uses emotionally toned news content to address the effect of cognitive motivational system activation on story recall and its possible interaction with news structure. DeAngelo and Yegiyan 3 Limited Capacity and Message Form This study draws on the propositions of the LC4MP (Lang, 2006). A basic tenet of LC4MP is that people have a finite (limited) pool of cognitive resources available to devote to processing mediated messages (Basil, 1994; Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977). Such resources are simultaneously distributed across the basic cognitive subprocesses of encoding, storage, and retrieval (Lang, 2006). Messages are poorly processed if not enough resources are allocated to message processing or if the message requires more resources than are available (Lang, 2006). The degree to which resources are automatically allocated to processing a message is also determined by the message’s formal features and content. For example, auditory complexity (Potter & Choi, 2006) and videographics (Thorson & Lang, 1992) are structural characteristics known to affect resource allocation to message processing. Content characteristics such as emotional tone (positive vs. negative) and arousal (calm vs. exciting) are also known to affect resource allocation (Lang, Newhagen, & Reeves, 1996; Newhagen & Reeves, 1992; Reeves, Newhagen, Maibach, Basil, & Kurz, 1991; Yegiyan & Lang, 2010). It is argued here that news writing structure (narrative vs. inverted pyramid) and news emotional tone will affect how news stories are processed. News Writing Format as Structure To better understand how these two writing structures may affect resource allocation to online story processing, this study will first delineate their similarities and differences and then draw from two processing paradigms—one focused on information processing under forced-choice contexts (i.e., where information is presented for processing linearly) and one focusing on information processing under a free-choice context (i.e., where information is not presented in a specific order)—to provide conflicting support for the use of each of these structures. Although the two structures in question are similar in some respect, as they both reveal core story elements at the story’s beginning, they are dissimilar in the way they introduce or begin the news story and in the way they present and organize supportive event details. Commonly, journalists organize news story information in an upside-down or inverted pyramid structure: a nonnarrative delivery method that presents information according to order of importance, from most to least important information (Brooks et al., 2008). This “objective” or “direct” news structure, which often attempts to answer as many of the five Ws (the who, when, where, why, and what) as possible in the first paragraph, has claimed its position as the dominant delivery style since the turn of the 20th century (Brooks et al., 2008; Mindich, 1998; Pöttker, 2003). Alternatively, journalists may choose to organize news story information from a more narrative, storytelling perspective (Johnston & Graham, 2012; Neveu, 2014). Although the definition of a narrative writing style or structure may not always appear consistent across the literature, Wise et al. (2009) describes narrative writing as “presenting facts and real-life observations in the suspense-ridden manner of a novel or a short story” (p. 534). Scholars have also specified the temporal order (time sequence) 4 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) of story events as a core feature of a narrative structure (Hoffman, 2010; Labov & Waletzky, 1967), such that stories are often composed in a fashion that links events by chronological and/or causal relations (Hoffman, 2010). To better clarify and illustrate differences in story element presentation within these two writing structures, consider the following story used within the current study: A young chef died after overdosing on cocaine. Adapted to an inverted pyramid structure, this story would begin with a direct lead paragraph highlighting all pertinent Ws, such as “A promising young sous-chef died this past weekend after overdosing on cocaine near his work in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.” Subsequent sentences would present information in order of immediacy, such that information elaborating on those fundamental story facts would be presented first (e.g., where, why, and how the overdose occurred), followed by increasingly less pertinent story information (e.g., less essential or less clarifying testimonial). Alternatively, a narrative adaptation would lead readers with suspense by beginning with an interesting story scene (perhaps, describing the scene of a young chef attending a party) while revealing core elements of the story (i.e., the chef and his death). The story would then reveal additional event details in chronological order, alleviating suspense as additional story elements are disclosed (e.g., death as the result of a cocaine overdose). In sum, the two structures used in this study differ in how they order and present story elements. However, both structures reveal core story elements within their introduction via a direct lead (in the inverted pyramid) or suspense lead (in the narrative). News Structure on Limited Resource Allocation The effect of these structures, among others, on limited resource allocation to news story processing has been largely assessed in experimental contexts that limit viewer control (i.e., forced-choice contexts). Under forced-choice conditions, news consumers may lack freedom over the order in which news content is presented to them. For example, experimental conditions that include but are not limited to video (via television) or text exposure (via print or computer desktop) may predefine the pace and/or order by which news stories are processed. Narratively stylized structures presented in these formats have generally been found to aid memory for and comprehension of news information when compared with an inverted pyramid stylized structure (Lang, 1989; Machill, Köhler, & Waldhauser, 2007; Wise et al., 2009; Yaros, 2006; Yaros & Cook, 2011), particularly for those lacking prior knowledge of the issue discussed in the news (Emde et al., 2016). Scholars have argued that the increased information processing associated with a narrative structure occurs because its more linear organization places less cognitive demand on the receiver’s limited resources than does an inverted pyramid structure (Emde et al., 2016; Lang, 1989). From a cognitive psychology and information processing perspective, the resource-consuming nature of the inverted pyramid—which to reiterate begins with a macro lead statement followed by supportive context details in descending order of importance—stems from its reliance on the receiver to access previously stored knowledge as they continue through the story. When processing an DeAngelo and Yegiyan 5 inverted pyramid story, limited resources may first be devoted to encoding initial information in the lead into an active mental representation in working memory (see Lang, 2006 for review). As receivers continue to encode incoming story information, resources must also be devoted to integrating or linking this newly encoded information with previously stored information to make sense of the story as it unfolds. This consistent resource devotion to retrieving previously stored knowledge may strain the receiver’s limited cognitive resources, which may ultimately result in inferior information processing. Conversely, the temporal, linear organization of events in a narrative structure may better mirror how real-life experiences are communicated and cognized (Fisher, 1985; Norrick, 2016; Tulving, 1972). As a result of this more logical organization, fewer limited resources may be spent retrieving previously stored information. If fewer cognitive processing demands are placed on the message receiver, a greater amount of resources may be available to devote to processing the message, which may result in greater information processing. Therefore, participants may recall narrative stories earlier and more accurately than inverted pyramid stories. Furthermore, if a narrative structure decreases information processing demands, such that processing difficulty is reduced, research suggests readers may spend less time processing the stories written in a more linear, narrative structure compared with those written in an inverted pyramid structure (Morrison & Dainoff, 1972; Yaros & Cook, 2011). Thus, participants may spend less time on narrative stories than inverted pyramid stories. News Structure on Resource Allocation When Considering Web Use If we consider the manner by which individuals engage with Web-based news information, however, the inverted pyramid structure may better facilitate information processing. The World Wide Web (referred to from this point on as the “Web”) is a complex structure of nodes and links. To put this into perspective, the structure of an online newspaper, the New York Times, for example, is a combination of a central node (i.e., the homepage), subordinate or lower level nodes (i.e., story pages), and hyperlinks, which link the nodes together. Within this environment, individuals are free to read out of order by navigating between news story pages as they please. Therefore, freedom of choice or user control over the pace and/or order of news story presentation may have important implications for how individuals process news in online contexts. With such user control, research has identified that Web users tend to “scan” information (Eveland & Dunwoody, 2001; Liu, 2005), often selectively based on importance or interest (Eveland & Dunwoody, 2002). As a result of this behavioral tendency, information processing online is likely to suffer. Indeed, compared with processing print magazine stories, processing online magazine stories, for example, is found to increase selective scanning leading to decreased content knowledge (Eveland & Dunwoody, 2002). Similarly, reading news online, compared with reading news in 6 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) print, is associated with less recognition and recall for news events (Tewksbury & Althaus, 2000). Given that users scan online information, which may result in poor information processing, a narrative structure with its indirect lead may be particularly ill-suited for effectively delivering online information. As online news readers scan the beginning of the narrative story, they may “give up” on processing the story any further as they continue to devote more cognitive resources and time reading to acquiring pertinent story information; when pertinent story information is not revealed within the first paragraph, readers may grow increasingly frustrated and at some point abandon the story. Such abandonment would likely reduce memory accuracy for online news information. Journalism textbooks support this perspective, with Tompkins (2012) stating, “You will lose online readers if you bury the lead” (p. 187). From this perspective, an inverted pyramid structure may be of greater use in an online environment as it may more efficiently deliver news information and better suit the behavioral tendencies of online users. Specifically, the direct-lead approach of the inverted pyramid structure will (at the very least) provide readers with an encompassing summation of the stories’ important, main points as readers scan the first paragraph of the story. Thus, readers will need to devote less effort—less cognitive resources and time—to achieve a more complete understanding of the news story. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed: H1: Participants will recall inverted pyramid stories earlier and more accurately than narrative stories. H2: Participants will spend less time on inverted pyramid stories than narrative stories. However, if results of the study are significant and in the opposite direction of these hypotheses, results will automatically support the forced-choice paradigm. Emotional Tone and Negativity Bias in News Information Processing In addition to news structural organizations, journalists may consider the emotional appeal or the tone of the news content (Pantti, 2010), where tone refers to the affective component of the message, the nature of the news as positive, negative, or neutral (McCombs, Holbert, Kiousis, & Wanta, 2011). More commonly, it is believed that news outlets emphasize the negative rather than the positive (Bennett, 2016; Uscinski, 2014). A number of studies across media contexts support the notion of press negativity bias, with research finding increased emphasis on violent crime (Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000; Johnson, 1996; Klite, Bardwell, & Salzman, 1997) and negative headlines in online news (Reis et al., 2015), to name a few. Not only is there an emphasis on the production of negative news, but news consumers also appear to biasedly process negative news. People pay more attention to televised negative news, such that negative news is associated with increased attention DeAngelo and Yegiyan 7 indicated by a slower/decreased heart rate (Grabe, Lang, & Zhao, 2003; Soroka & McAdams, 2015), and improved memory for information associated with negative news content in terms of quicker recognition, increased recognition accuracy, and increased free recall (Grabe et al., 2003). Memory for televised news information is also found to improve in terms of increased free recall when news information is paired with negative video content (Lang et al., 1996), and in terms of reduced (quicker) recognition latency when news information is positioned after negative imagery (Newhagen & Reeves, 1992). Furthermore, research on online information processing also suggests a negativity bias, such that online users show a preference for negative news stories by selecting them earlier (Trussler & Soroka, 2014) and more often (Meffert, Chung, Joiner, Waks, & Garst, 2006) than positive news stories, and by increasing selective exposure time to stories with negative leads (Zillmann, Chen, Knobloch, & Callison, 2004) and stories accompanied by negative imagery (Sargent, 2007). To explain this negativity bias phenomenon, it is argued that the human brain has evolved to attend to threatening or harmful environmental information (Lang, 2006), suggesting that humans are biologically “hardwired” to survey and attend to deviant information in the news environment (Shoemaker, 1996). From the perspective of LC4MP, humans are innately motivated to attend to both positive and negative environmental stimuli as a function of two underlying cognitive motivational systems that activate in response to two primary stimuli dimensions: the valence (positivity or negativity) and arousal (excitement) level of the stimuli (Lang, 2006). The appetitive motivational system activates in response to positive environmental stimuli and facilitates approach behavior, whereas the aversive motivational system activates in response to negative or threatening environmental stimuli and facilitates avoidance behavior (Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999). The degree to which cognitive resources are automatically allocated to stimuli encoding and storage is thought to be associated with the degree to which the two underlying cognitive motivational systems activate (Lang, 2006). In an effort to respond as quickly as possible to potentially harmful stimuli, the aversive motivational system activates more quickly to increasingly arousing environmental stimuli than the appetitive motivational system. This function of the aversive motivational system is referred to as negativity bias (Cacioppo, Gardner, & Berntson, 1997). As a result of this negativity bias, moderate to moderately high levels of stimuli arousal result in greater cognitive resources allocated to negative stimuli encoding compared with resources allocated to positive stimuli encoding (Lang, Park, Sanders-Jackson, Wilson, & Wang, 2007). In accordance with the negativity bias function of the aversive motivational system, exposure to moderately negative and positive news stories of moderate arousal should result in greater cognitive resources devoted to processing negative news stories, which should result in greater recall of negative news stories than positive news stories. Thus, the following hypothesis is posed: H3: Participants will recall negative stories earlier and more accurately than positive stories. 8 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) As a result of an increased attention to negative stories, participants will likely devote more time to reading negative news stories. Thus, the study poses the following hypothesis: H4: Participants will spend more time on negative stories than positive stories. Furthermore, use of a narrative structure is associated with affective reactions such as increased reader suspense and enjoyment (Knobloch, Patzig, Mende, & Hastall, 2004), and has been associated with superior cognitive processing compared with the inverted pyramid structure (Lang, 1989). As a result, it is possible that narrative stories may overall be better processed, regardless of their emotional tone. However, the effect of emotion may be more pronounced in the inverted pyramid stories such that the negative stories may be recalled better compared with the positive inverted stories. However, because there has been no systematic investigation of the relationship between emotional tone and the structure of news stories, we pose the following research question: RQ1: Will there be an interaction between story emotional tone and structure to affect story recall? Method Design This study used a 2 (story structure) × 2 (emotional tone) × 2 (centrality repetition) × 4 (story repetition) mixed factorial design. Story structure was the only betweensubjects factor and was manipulated across two levels of writing organization— inverted pyramid and narrative. Emotional tone and story topic were within-subject factors, such that stories were written across two levels of emotional tone (positive and negative) and across four levels of news story topic (drunk driving, drugs, smoking, and pet adoption). The topics were limited to social issues to avoid otherwise more sensitive topics such as politics, gun control, war, and so forth. Centrality was also a within-subjects factor and was manipulated across two levels: stories positioned centrally (in the center of the screen) and stories positioned peripherally (in the peripheral edges of the screen). Stimuli Emotional tone. Eight news stories were adapted from reported news events across a wide variety of news websites. For each of the four topics, two stories were selected such that one was positive and the other was negative. Negative stories more frequently used negative words (e.g., death, dangerous, broke) and emphasized an unfortunate event outcome (e.g., child accidently dies), whereas positive stories used more positive words (e.g., love, win, happy) and emphasized a favorable event outcome DeAngelo and Yegiyan 9 (e.g., woman triumphs over addiction). A manipulation check was conducted for both the headlines and stories. Undergraduate students (N = 160) were asked to read a single story from the pool of preselected stories described above. Each story in the sample was read by a total of about 20 participants. After reading, each participant was asked to indicate on a 9-point scale how aroused, how positive, and how negative each story headline and news story made them feel. Negative headlines were moderately arousing (M = 4.25, SD = 2.04), negative (M = 7.1, SD = 1.67), but not positive (M = 1.46, SD = 0.91). Positive headlines were moderately arousing (M = 4.36, SD = 1.98), positive (M = 5.53, SD = 2.02), but not negative (M = 2.74, SD = 1.75). Negative stories were moderately arousing (M = 4.14, SD = 2.09), negative (M = 6.9, SD = 1.83), but not positive (M = 1.83, SD = 1.34). Positive stories were moderately arousing (M = 5.18, SD = 1.85), positive (M = 6.31, SD = 1.82), but not negative (M = 2.34, SD = 1.59). Independent-samples t tests were run to test differences between positive and negative headlines and stories. Positive headlines were more positive (M = 5.53, SD = 0.2) than negative headlines (M = 1.46, SD = 0.91), t(158) = 16.4, p < .001, and negative headlines were more negative (M = 7.1, SD = 1.67) than positive headlines (M = 2.74, SD = 1.75), t(157) = −16.1, p < .001, but no differences were found on arousal ratings, t(158) = −0.35, p > .05. Positive stories were more positive (M = 6.31, SD = 1.82) than negative stories (M = 1.83, SD = 1.34), t(158) = 17.78, p < .001, and negative stories were more negative (M = 6.9, SD = 1.83) than positive stories (M = 2.34, SD = 1.59), t(158) = −16.86, p < .001, and arousal ratings of positive stories (M = 5.18, SD = 1.85) were slightly greater than those of negative stories (M = 4.14, SD = 2.09), t(158) = 3.32, p < .001. Story structure. Each story was written to comply with two structure versions: the inverted pyramid and the news narrative. Structure manipulations were adapted from Wise et al. (2009) and Lang (1989). Inverted pyramid stories began with a hard-news lead, providing applicable who, what, when, where, and how elements, followed by most supportive/relevant information to least essential information. Conversely, narrative stories began with an interesting scene or twist, followed by story information ordered chronologically—the order in which the events must have occurred—with more story elements revealed as the story continued. This narrative organization was modeled off of the “news narrative with narrative emphasis” news writing form, outlined by Brooks et al. (2008). Story sentences were reordered with minimal alteration to fit structure organization. Consistency in word choice and sentence structure was stressed across structures to maintain as much semantic similarity as possible. This was important to ensure the validity of the memory test. However, to ensure that story restructuring did not affect the perceived quality and understandability of the stories, a group of undergraduate students (N = 63) read the stories and indicated how well they were written, how easy they were to understand, and how easy they were to read, using a 7-point scale (with 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree). Ratings from each story produced no significant systematic differences in writing quality, understandability, and readability across stories (see Table 1 for Ms and standard 10 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for Story Ratings on Writing Quality, Understandability, and Readability. Story Pet adoption Negative IP NN Positive IP NN Drugs Negative IP NN Positive IP NN Drunk driving Negative IP NN Positive IP NN Smoking Negative IP NN Positive IP NN Well written Easily understood Easily read M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) 5.07 (1.67) 4.76 (1.68) 5.27 (1.49) 5.71 (1.26) 5.4 (1.55) 5.29 (1.79) 4.56 (1.55) 4.93 (1.27) 5.65 (1.22) 5.64 (1.5) 5.71 (1.31) 5.79 (1.05) 5.24 (0.75) 4.59 (1.58) 5.47 (1.12) 4.88 (1.69) 5.47 (1.07) 5.12 (1.83) 5.57 (1.16) 5.14 (1.61) 5.71 (1.14) 5.36 (1.50) 6 (0.78) 5.43 (1.55) 5.21 (1.31) 4.44 (1.67) 5.79 (1.12) 4.88 (1.78) 5.79 (1.25) 4.75 (1.69) 5.71 (1.36) 4.87 (0.92) 5.94 (1.34) 5.67 (1.11) 5.94 (1.34) 5.67 (1.18) 5.35 (1.58) 5.27 (1.33) 6.35 (0.79)a** 5.33 (1.29)a 6.47 (0.72)b** 5.07 (1.62)b 5.36 (1.08)c* 4.41 (1.37)c 6.21 (0.70) 5.41 (1.33) 6.14 (0.77) 5.53 (1.18) Note. Means between rows sharing the same subscript indicate independent samples t-test significant differences across writing structures. Results reported here were gathered from a sample separate from those who participated in the experiment, but drawn from the same student population. IP = inverted pyramid; NN = news narrative. *p < .05. **p ⩽ .01. deviations). Regardless of structure, all stories were approximately 300 words long (see the online appendix for example news stories). Stories were divided among two websites, such that if, for example, the story on a particular topic, of a specific emotional tone, and of an inverted pyramid structure is assigned to Website 1, that same story but with a narrative structure is assigned to Website 2. Each website contained eight stories, half of which were positive and half DeAngelo and Yegiyan 11 Figure 1. Experimental website layout. Note. Four stories were positioned within the center of the screen and four stories were positioned within the peripheral edges of the screen. DUI = driving under the influence. were negative. Within the four positive stories, half had an inverted pyramid structure and the other half had a narrative structure. The same was true for negative stories. Visually, the stories were equally distributed across the outer (peripheral) and inner (central) perimeter of the website space, as illustrated in Figure 1. The story position was systematically rotated on the website homepage to form 16 homepage layouts. The goal was to ensure that stories with the same news topic, same emotional tone, and same writing structure were not placed next to each other horizontally or vertically. And, across these layouts, each story rotated to appear in all of the four inner (central) and four outer (peripheral) positions. Story familiarity. Story familiarity was controlled by extensive editing of the news stories collected from online news outlets. Stories were modified to include fictitious character names and locations. In some cases, story facts and endings were also modified. Story interest. Interest in stories was measured by asking participants to indicate how important each of the four story topics were to themselves on a 9-point scale from 1 (least important) to 9 (most important). On average, story topics were reported to be moderately interesting to participants, with means ranging between “5” and “7.” 12 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) Dependent Variables Free recall accuracy. A free recall test was used to measure story recollection. Participants were asked to list as many website stories as they could, in the order they came to mind, using a short descriptive sentence or a couple of words. Accuracy was assessed by assigning “1” to responses that accurately recalled at least half of the stories’ central characteristics and by assigning “0” to responses that recalled less than half of the stories’ central characteristics. For example, the story about the young sous-chef who died from an overdose of cocaine would be marked as accurately recalled if at least half of the words “young,” “sous-chef,” “died,” and “cocaine” were indicated within the participants’ responses. Variations on words (e.g., drug instead of cocaine, cook instead of sous-chef) were accepted. Single story responses that contained a mix of central story characteristics from two separate stories were coded as inaccurate. Free recall order. Order of story recall was also assessed. Accurate responses were assigned a number that corresponded to the order in which they were recalled by the subject such that “1” indicated the story was recalled first, “2” indicated the story was recalled second, and so forth. News stories that were not recalled or were recalled inaccurately were coded as “9” to indicate least priority. Time spent on story. Time spent on story was measured via Medialab software as participants navigated the website. The software recorded participants’ time spent on each news story webpage in seconds. Although the individual time spent on each story varied on average, all participants spent about 10 to 12 min with the website. Participants Two hundred thirty-two undergraduate students were recruited from a variety of introductory social science courses to participate in this experiment. However, data from 22 participants were removed from analysis due to experimenter error or the participant not following experiment instructions. Data from the remaining 210 participants were analyzed. Procedure On entering the laboratory, participants were seated in front of a computer. Before the experiment began, participants were told that the purpose of the study was to learn more about how people process online news and that they would be asked questions pertaining to the information on the news website. Participants were then instructed to browse the news website as they pleased, and to finish reading all eight of the website’s news stories. Participants were then exposed to the news website for a fixed time of 10 min, but were allowed to stay longer if they wished. During the experiment, participants used the computer mouse to click on any of the eight news story DeAngelo and Yegiyan 13 headlines. After clicking on a headline, participants were directed to a story webpage displaying the full article. A “HOME” tab positioned in the upper-left screen corner allowed participants to return to the website homepage at any time. After a fixed exposure time of 10 min, participants were asked whether they had finished reading all eight news stories. If the participant clicked “no,” he or she was directed back to the homepage of the website. Website viewers could then move forward in the experiment at any time by clicking a “Continue” button in the lower right corner of the screen. If the participant clicked “yes,” indicating he or she had finished reading all eight news stories, the participant was instructed to inform the researcher that he or she had finished the first portion of the experiment. Participants were then given a writing utensil and a paper form containing eight boxes. Instructions on the form asked participants to list as many of the website stories in the order they come to mind in the boxes below, using a short sentence that describes it, or a couple of words. On completion of the free recall task, participants were debriefed, thanked for their participation, and dismissed. Data Reduction and Analysis Participant data were aggregated across each of the 16 websites and collapsed across the topic repetition factor to form a 2 (emotional tone) × 2 (story structure) × 2 (centrality repetition) within-subjects data structure. The centrality factor did not have an effect on free recall order, free recall accuracy, or time spent reading. Results Effects of Story Structure on Order and Accuracy of Recall Two competing hypotheses were posed about the effects of story structure on recall. If news stories written in a narrative structure are recalled sooner and more accurately than the stories in an inverted pyramid structure, then our data would support the reduced demands on limited cognitive resources theoretical framework. Alternatively, if news stories written in an inverted pyramid structure are recalled sooner and more accurately than the stories in a narrative structure, then our data would support the Web-based processing theoretical framework. H1 was tested using a 2 (story structure) × 2 (emotional tone) × 2 (centrality repetition) repeated measures ANOVA. There was a main effect of story structure on order of free recall, F(1, 209) = 3.77, p = .053, η2p = .02, such that, on average, news stories written in an inverted pyramid structure were recalled earlier (M = 5.22, SE = 0.09) than news stories written in a narrative structure (M = 5.49, SE = 0.09). There was also a marginally significant main effect of story structure on free recall accuracy, F(1, 209) = 3.25, p = .073, η2p = .02, such that news stories written in an inverted pyramid structure were also more accurately recalled (M = 0.72, SE = 0.02) than news stories written in a narrative structure (M = 0.68, SE = 0.02). Thus, results support the Web-based processing theoretical framework, suggesting greater ease of accessing and greater devotion of 14 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) Table 2. Estimated Means and Standard Errors for the Main Effects of Structure and Emotion on Free Recall Order and Accuracy and Time Spent. Free recall order Structure Inverted pyramid Narrative Emotion Negative Positive Free recall accuracy Structure Inverted pyramid Narrative Emotion Negative Positive Time spent on story Structure Inverted pyramid Narrative Emotion Negative Positive M SE 5.22 5.49 0.09 0.09 4.88 5.83 0.09 0.09 0.72 0.68 0.02 0.02 0.76 0.64 0.02 0.02 65.55 69.31 1.4 1.47 71.36 63.49 1.42 1.49 P η2p 3.77 .053 .02 49.71 <.001 .19 3.25 .073 .02 32.28 <.001 .13 5.16 .024 .02 20.87 <.001 .09 F Note. Structure and emotion did not interact on any dependent variables (p > .05). cognitive resources to processing online news stories written in an inverted pyramid structure (see also Table 2). Effects of Story Structure on Time Spent Two competing hypotheses were also posed about the effects of story structure on time spent reading. If participants spent less time on news stories written in a narrative structure than an inverted pyramid structure, then our data would support the reduced demands on limited cognitive resources theoretical framework. Alternatively, if participants spent less time on news stories written in an inverted pyramid structure than a narrative structure, then our data would support the Web-based processing theoretical framework. H2 was tested using a 2 (story structure) × 2 (emotional tone) × 2 (centrality repetition) repeated measures ANOVA. There was a main effect of story structure on time spent reading, F(1, 209) = 5.16, p = .024, η2p = .02. On average, participants spent more time reading news stories written in a narrative structure (M = 69.31, SE = 1.47) than news stories written in an inverted pyramid structure DeAngelo and Yegiyan 15 (M = 65.55, SE = 1.4). Thus, results support H2, suggesting that participants devoted more effort in terms of time to processing narrative news stories. Effects of Emotional Tone H3 predicted that negative news stories would result in earlier and greater recall than positive news stories. Analysis revealed a main effect of emotional tone on order of free recall, F(1, 209) = 49.71, p < .001, η2p = .19, such that participants recalled negative news stories earlier (M = 4.88, SE = 0.09) than positive news stories (M = 5.83, SE = 0.09). There was also a main effect of emotional tone on free recall accuracy, F(1, 209) = 32.28, p < .001, η2p = .13, such that participants also recalled negative news stories more often (M = 0.76, SE = 0.02) than positive news stories (M = 0.64, SE = 0.02). Such results support H3 and suggest increased ease of accessing and greater devotion of cognitive resources to processing stories of a negative emotional tone compared with news stories of a positive emotional tone. H4 predicted that negative news stories would result in greater time spent reading than positive news stories. Analysis revealed a main effect of emotional tone on time 2 spent reading, F(1, 209) = 20.87, p < .001, η p = .09. Participants spent more time reading negative news stories (M = 71.36, SE = 1.42) than positive news stories (M = 63.49, SE = 1.49). Thus, results support H4 and suggest that participants biasedly devoted more effort (time) to processing negative news stories. Structure and Emotional Tone on Order and Accuracy of Recall RQ1 asked whether there would be an interaction between story emotional tone and structure to affect story recall. No interaction was found for order of free recall, F = 2.2, ns, or free recall accuracy, F < 1, ns. Discussion The goal of this study was to explore how news writing structure and emotional tone may be used to improve website information processing. This study considered how these factors affected readers’ cognitive effort (time spent) and memory for news content (recall) by comparing and contrasting two theoretical frameworks: the forcedchoice paradigm and the free-choice paradigm. Under the former, narrative structures were expected to ease information processing such that users would spend more time reading (devote more cognitive effort) and recall more news information from stories written in a narrative format. Alternatively, under the latter, inverted pyramid structures were expected to align more with common Web use and browsing behavior such that readers would prefer the format’s direct nature and would spend more time reading (devote more cognitive effort) and have better recall for stories written in an inverted pyramid structure. Furthermore, this study considered the impact that emotional tone may have on online news information processing. Overall, the results of 16 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0) this study are consistent with the Web-based and negativity bias information processing theoretical frameworks: Inverted pyramid stories were not only recalled earlier and more accurately, but also resulted in less time spent on story webpages. Conversely, narrative stories were recalled later and with less accuracy—even though users spent more time on the story webpages. Negative news stories, compared with positive news stories, were recalled earlier, with more accuracy, and resulted in more time spent on story webpages. Still, no interaction was found for emotional tone and story structure. Therefore, this study not only confirms our bias to negative news, but also clarifies the relationship between structure and emotional tone as largely independent. This study contributes to our understanding of how news stories are processed in an online environment. As the public shifts to gather its news from more online news outlets (Pew Research Center, 2012), this study provides initial evidence that online news is consumed more efficiently when written in an inverted pyramid, rather than a narrative, structure. Practically, increased efficiency leaves consumers with additional resources that may be allocated to other website content such as additional news stories and/or advertisement content. Furthermore, news producers and editors of online stories may want to streamline news production methods to incorporate the inverted pyramid as a staple, efficient text structure; doing so may not only leave online news consumers more informed—should they leave the story page before reaching the end of the article—but also save editors time and company resources in the event that article length must be shortened. This study, therefore, builds on existing information processing theoretical frameworks to shed light on how journalists may write to effectively inform the reader in an environment that affords user control. This degree of “user control” afforded by a Web-based delivery mode may be key in explaining why the data digress from studies that show support for more narrative stylized structures (Lang, 1989; Machill et al., 2007; Tun, 1989; Yaros & Cook, 2011). Such research delivered news stories sequentially using televised newscasts, print, and webpages, which afforded users with little control over the pace and/or order of news exposure. A narrative writing style may, therefore, be more beneficial within modalities where viewers are captive to devote cognitive resources to a whole story, in a linear manner. An inverted pyramid writing style, however, may be more beneficial in an environment where news consumption requires active engagement and may occur nonsequentially. Indeed, user navigation between the website homepage and story webpages may strain limited available cognitive resources. An inverted pyramid structure may be best suited for this environment, where users may return to the story at any time as the structure allows users to quickly acquire key story points and continue reading where they left off. Furthermore, the online environment requires that users decide which news story, out of several homepage options, they would select. When faced with such a variety of choices, users may grow more impatient with the suspense lead of the narrative structure, and may, therefore, devote less cognitive resources to stories written in that format. An alternative explanation for the lack of narrative effectiveness may relate to the type of news articles used in our experiment and the journalistic goals often associated DeAngelo and Yegiyan 17 with each writing structure. Because the news articles in our experiment were formatted to be informative in nature rather than entertaining, such that they did not focus on plot or character development, they lend themselves particularly well to our measurements of effectiveness in terms of information processing (recall) and time effectiveness. Thus, a narrative structure may be considered more “effective” if measured in its ability to immerse readers or increase reader enjoyment, whereas an inverted pyramid structure may be more “effective” if measured by its ability to maximize fact processing and reduce processing time. Although this study revealed important findings, it is essential that we consider the study’s limitations and provide some directions for future research. First, with regard to the study’s structure manipulation, it is important to recognize that stories used in this study were created in the lab and were specifically designed to retain internal semantic consistency. As a result, these stories lacked additional storytelling language elements. This limits the generalizability of our findings to a larger pool of professionally written news stories. Future studies should consider using narrative and inverted pyramid news stories that afford greater writing variation to address this limitation. And, although news story structure affected user’s recall in the current experiment, we are uncertain about how these structures would affect cognitive effort and memory in a less controlled, more natural, online environment. It remains unclear how these structures would hold within webpages containing additional structural features that may dilute available cognitive resources. Today’s online news environment commonly contains more content than story information alone; embedded advertisements in story text, animated banners, and images are all part of the shifting online screen environment. Although some research has already begun to investigate cognitive resource allocation to news processing when considering both news writing style and videos (Wise et al., 2009), the effects of these features remain to be tested in an experiment where users have more control over story selection. Future studies should also attempt to test the effect of structure within an environment where time spent with the website is not controlled. This study is also limited by its population sample; participants in this study consisted of college students whose education level may not reflect that of the general population. Thus, future research should explore effects of these structures using a more diverse population sample. Furthermore, it is possible that the effects of the inverted pyramid structure may have been modulated by perceived differences in writing quality, understandability, and readability, as reported in Table 1. Additional research is still needed to address this issue. 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Attention versus learning of online content: Preliminary findings from an eye-tracking study. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 1, 49-69. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-1858-9.ch009 Yegiyan, N. S., & Lang, A. (2010). Processing central and peripheral detail: How content arousal and emotional tone influence encoding. Media Psychology, 13, 77-99. doi:10.1080/15213260903563014 York, C. (2013). Overloaded by the news: Effects of news exposure and enjoyment on reporting information overload. Communication Research Reports, 30, 282-292. doi:10.1080/08824 096.2013.836628 Zillmann, D., Chen, L., Knobloch, S., & Callison, C. (2004). Effects of lead framing on selective exposure to Internet news reports. Communication Research, 31, 58-81. doi:10.1177/0093650203260201 Author Biographies Tessa I. DeAngelo is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis. Her research is primarily concerned with how people process online messages. Her work is centered around motivated information processing theory and is dedicated to understanding how message formal features and content affect information processing. Narine S. Yegiyan (PhD, Indiana University, Bloomington) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at University of California, Davis. Her primary research interests include understanding of how message structure and content interact to affect cognitive and emotional processing of media. She has published in journals such as Human Communication Research, Communication Research, Media Psychology, and Cognition & Emotion.
