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Abstract
The effects of image–issue scene orders and positive–negative scene orders in a broadcast news story on viewers’ memory, attitudes, and voting intention are examined. The 2 different orders of image–issue and positive–negative scenes are independent variables, whereas free recall, recognition memory, attitudes toward candidates, and voting intention are the dependent variables for this study. An experiment with broadcast news stories about political candidates was carried out.
Two main discoveries are made in this study. First, no main order effect of image–issue and positive–negative scenes is found. This illustrates that the order of 2 viewpoints presented in a news story does not influence viewers’ memory or perception of the issue discussed in the story, perhaps due to primacy and recency effects. Second, interaction effects have been observed so that those stories with positive image and negative issue scenes elicit more positive attitudes toward the candidates and higher voting intention than those stories with negative image and positive issue scenes, regardless of scene order. This suggests that information about a candidate's image is more important than issue stands in the initial impression formation stage of a political candidate.