TV vs. Newspapers

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Television vs. Newspaper Retention

By Ryan Allison

The goal of this experiment is to study the effects of watching news on the television vs. reading the same news in a newspaper. Emphasizing on the amounts of knowledge retained. My hypothesis is; Students who learn current events from watching television can retain that information more efficiently than students who learn of the same current events from a newspaper. The experiment is laid out step by step but no results are documented because the experiment was not actually given. Results from other experiments studying the same topic are stated throughout to back up the hypothesis. Those studies show that memory is retained better when students watch current events on television rather than reading about the same events in the newspaper.

Televisions vs. Newspaper

Introduction

For years there has been an ongoing debate on whether information is retained better through reading the newspaper or watching television. In an age when new discoveries and information is being added to the list of knowledge students are expected to keep up on, it is important to know the most efficient means of retaining information. Students today live in the so called “computer age” and are more likely to get information, such as current events, using television as their media outlet. Studies conclude that reading proficiently does not play a significant role in retention of news material. However, those who watch the news on television remember far more than those who read the print account (van der Molen and van der Voort, 1997). My hypothesis is; Students who learn current events from watching television can retain that information more efficiently than students who learn of the same current events from a newspaper.

Method

Participants

This experiment involved sixty participants. Each participant was a student enrolled in the first year of political science at Angelina College. Because classes at Angelina College are smaller than sixty students it was necessary for two classes to participate. The two classes were in session at the same time, therefore had different professors.

Apparatus

The experiment required recent and matching current events in both copies of printed exerts, New York Times and Lufkin Daily News, and recorded television news, CNN Headline and Lufkin KTRE TV9 evening news. One television/ VCR combination unit with stand and one recordable VCR tape was used to record and show the television news, to one group of students. Two copies of both the New York Times and the Lufkin Daily News were used to extract national and local current events. The extracted news articles were copied thirty times each on plain white printing paper using a copy machine. Thirty vanilla folders were used to hold the copied news articles and presented to the students in the other group. A black bag containing sixty poker chips, red and blue, was used for participants to be randomly assigned. Sixty tests and sixty #2 pencils were also used to test all the students on their knowledge retained.

Procedure

Participants were assigned randomly either to the control group, the students read the news in the news paper, or the experimental group, who were the students who were presented the news audio visually. Because there were two classes going on at the same time, each class chose out of the same bag to achieve random assignment. The bag contained thirty blue chips which represented Group 1 our control group, and thirty red chips which represented Group 2, the experimental group. Then students were separated into their respective groups. Group one going into classroom A and group 2 going into classroom B. Classroom A were given vanilla folders containing copied excerpts of the newspaper articles to read and review individually in a one and a half hour period. Classroom B was instructed to watch the hour and a half long news clippings on the pre recorded tape with no group discussion. On the next class day that the two classes met they were immediately separated back into respective groups from before. Both groups were then given identical tests over the current events from the previous class period. The test consisted of seventy five questions, fifty multiple choice and fifteen fill in the blank. The independent variable is the form of media given to the students and the dependent variable is the student’s scores on the tests.

Results

This is a hypothetical experiment therefore there are no results.

Discussion

I agree with the philosophy stating that when students are presented current events audio visually they retain that information better than when presented information in print. Because the experiment was never actually given, we can only go off the results of previous studies. These studies conclude that television images affect the emotions of the viewers more so than print of the same story (Lang, 1995). Therefore helping watchers retain information more efficiently than readers.

References

van der Molen, Alma Juliette H. and van der Voort, Tom H.A. (1997, March). Children’s recall of television and print news: a media compassion study. Journal of Educational Psychology, V89, n1, pp.82 (10).

Lang, P.J. (1995). The emotion probe: Studies of motivation and attention. American Psychologist, 50(5), 372-385

TV Vs. Newspapers