Abstract
A news report on the plight of a minority of American family farmers was manipulated to create versions differing in the degree of precision of general information (precise, imprecise) and in the use of exemplifying case histories (selective, blended, representative). Selective exemplification featured only histories of failing farms, representative exemplification a distribution of histories of failing and successful farms proportional to their actual occurrence. Respondents reported their own views concerning the farmers' plight either shortly after reading or after a delay of one or two weeks. The accuracy of estimates of failing farms was found to be highest for representative and lowest for selective exemplification - despite the availability of corrective general information. These effects were stable over time.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 427-444 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 1996 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Communication
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Effects of exemplification in news reports on the perception of social issues. / Zillmann, Dolf; Gibson, Rhonda; Sundar, S. Shyam; Perkins, Joseph W.
In: Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly, Vol. 73, No. 2, 01.01.1996, p. 427-444.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of exemplification in news reports on the perception of social issues
AU - Zillmann, Dolf
AU - Gibson, Rhonda
AU - Sundar, S. Shyam
AU - Perkins, Joseph W.
PY - 1996/1/1
Y1 - 1996/1/1
N2 - A news report on the plight of a minority of American family farmers was manipulated to create versions differing in the degree of precision of general information (precise, imprecise) and in the use of exemplifying case histories (selective, blended, representative). Selective exemplification featured only histories of failing farms, representative exemplification a distribution of histories of failing and successful farms proportional to their actual occurrence. Respondents reported their own views concerning the farmers' plight either shortly after reading or after a delay of one or two weeks. The accuracy of estimates of failing farms was found to be highest for representative and lowest for selective exemplification - despite the availability of corrective general information. These effects were stable over time.
AB - A news report on the plight of a minority of American family farmers was manipulated to create versions differing in the degree of precision of general information (precise, imprecise) and in the use of exemplifying case histories (selective, blended, representative). Selective exemplification featured only histories of failing farms, representative exemplification a distribution of histories of failing and successful farms proportional to their actual occurrence. Respondents reported their own views concerning the farmers' plight either shortly after reading or after a delay of one or two weeks. The accuracy of estimates of failing farms was found to be highest for representative and lowest for selective exemplification - despite the availability of corrective general information. These effects were stable over time.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0009200150&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0009200150&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/107769909607300213
DO - 10.1177/107769909607300213
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0009200150
VL - 73
SP - 427
EP - 444
JO - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
JF - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
SN - 1077-6990
IS - 2
ER -