News Structure & Emotional Tone: Impact on Online Processing

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JMQXXX10.1177/1077699018792272Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlyDeAngelo and Yegiyan
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DOI: 10.1177/1077699018792272
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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: [email protected]
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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)
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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
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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.
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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
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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.”
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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
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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
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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. As the current study did not use additional
techniques that may more closely capture resource allocation while engaging with
each inverted pyramid and narrative stylized news story, future research should employ
additional research methodologies such as eye tracking techniques to better assess
users’ attention patterns within the text of each structure.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
18
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 00(0)
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Supplemental Material
The online appendices are available online at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/JMQ.
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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.