Which Ticker Format Works Best? Effects of Updating and Scrolling News Content on Viewer Memory and Program Engagement

Abstract

This study considers two news ticker formats-the update ticker and the scrolling ticker-to determine the impact of ticker format on memory for news items in the tickers as well as for news program content presented in the background. Postviewing responses between two treatment groups were compared, revealing better recognition of both types of news content when tickers updated rather than scrolled. Also, viewers report no differences in perceived clutter or program liking, suggesting there is no downside to using an update format.Several studies conducted in the last decade demonstrate an increasing tendency, primarily among the younger generations, to use multiple media simultaneously and/or multitask while consuming media (Carrier,

Is bad news on TV tickers good news? The effects of voiceover and visual elements in video on viewers’ assessment

“…Tickers are also a good way of presenting breaking news without interrupting the ongoing video material. That is perhaps why the age of regular information tickers started in 2001, during the World Trade Center attacks [37]. At the time, CNN wanted to communicate all pieces of news and present video material simultaneously.…”

“…There are, however, few studies that have specifically examined the effects of TV tickers. So far, researchers' attention has been focused on the effectiveness of information tickers in understanding and memorizing information in the context of multi-tasking [3], [40] reception of specific designs of tickers [2], display style (updating or scrolled format) [37], or as a promotional tool [41,42]. In one of the first series of experiments, news presented on the screen in graphic form or in the form of news tickers was found to reduce the understanding of information in both the auditory and visual channel compared to no visual condition.…”

“…Moreover, it appears that in the research conducted to date, only existing television material has been used [37,[40][41][42]88]. It should be noted, that not being able to fully modify the original video material hampers the ability to control a number of significant aspects of the coverage and restricts the possibility to create conditions for comparing the response to the TV material with different visual elements (tickers versus images versus control group).…”

“…Regarding the content of the information conveyed on the tickers with different affective valence, this kind of influence on the viewers' perceptions of the person presented in the video has not been verified so far. However, it should be noted that in these studies we do not focus on emotional "breaking news" tickers, but rather on "updating" format tickers [37], i.e. those that appear for a short time in the video material and disappear.…”

“…In addition, very different ticker formats will appear in the media. For example, Brechman and colleagues [37] distinguish "crawls", which move slowly to the left, and "flippers" which are static text lines that are updated once in a while. Information tickers can also take various graphical forms and colours.…”