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Although media professionals use production value to refer to technical aspects of program quality, evidence suggests that viewers are not adept at recognizing this property of content. Nonetheless, broadcasters are attempting to differentiate news product based on technical dimensions. To test the utility of this strategy, this experiment examined how production value impacts perceived technical quality, credibility, and economic value across two age cohorts. Viewers recognized variation in production value and judged stories high in production value as more credible than identical stories low in production value. However, they placed no greater value on high production value content.

Much scholarship has examined the parasocial bonds between audiences and media personalities. However, recent research differentiated between the development of parasocial relationships and the actual experience of parasocial interaction (EPSI) that can result from structural elements of a message such as style of address (Hartmann & Goldhoorn, 2011

Although scholars have generated much research examining enjoyment of mediated sports, much of it has failed to explore how visual production elements shape viewer response. This study examines the impact of one increasingly common technique, subjective camera, on viewer arousal and enjoyment of game play. Participants viewed multiple plays from a college football game R. Glenn Cummins (Ph.D., University of Alabama, 2005) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University. His research interests include the impact of various structural, content, and user characteristics on the enjoyment of media entertainment. Justin R. Keene (M.A., Texas Tech University, 2009) is a dual-Ph.D. student in the Department of Telecommunications and the Cognitive Science program at Indiana University. His research interests include motivated cognition, differential cognitive processing of sports fans, and cognitive modeling. Brandon H. Nutting (M.A., Texas Tech University, 2009) is a doctoral candidate in the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University. His research interests include cognitive processing of mediated messages and time perception.

As with previous years, enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs in the United States have continued to decline. In 2015, such decline among undergraduate student enrollments was particularly prevalent in journalism sequences; in contrast, undergraduate enrollments in strategic communication sequences have seen some growth since 2013. Findings also reveal potential for journalism and mass communication programs regarding the growth and emergence of online degree programs and online course offerings, the development of the competencies and skills desired by employers, and other opportunities for the professional development of today’s practically minded students.

Despite considerable research exploring female objectification in sports, researchers have not explored differences in how they are actually watched by audiences in terms of distribution of visual attention. Such differences can provide objective evidence of objectification by demonstrating a gender bias in terms of visual attention to female reporters’ bodies. This experiment ( N = 66) employs eye tracking to measure how much attention viewers allocated to male and female reporters’ bodies versus their faces, as well as differences in perceived credibility as a function of reporter gender. Results revealed a greater ratio of time on female reporters’ bodies to their faces relative to male reporters. This effect was most evident among viewers with reduced interest in sports. Furthermore, visual attention to reporters’ bodies—a passive measure of objectification—was largely unrelated to perceived credibility. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to female objectification in sports and how this might inform program production personnel.