Enhancing VNR Impact: The Effects of Captioning on Memory and Understanding of TV News

Video news release (VNR) producers limit references in VNRs to the sponsor of the VNR to avoid rejection by news directors on the grounds that the story is merely a commercial message for the sponsor. We posited in this study that when reference is made to the sponsor, optimal effect may be garnered by judicious use of captions in the VNR. An information-processing experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of limited captions on memory and understanding of TV news. Success with VNRs has been notable in two genres: scientific/medical/technical topics and event coverage. News items in this study tapped these two genres, categorized as abstract/word stories and concrete/picture stories, respectively. Captions improved memory for abstract/word stories but not for concrete/picture stories. Captioning had no significant effect on either understanding or visual recognition of the stories. We conclude that VNR producers might best use captions to the sponsor's advantage in scientific/medical/technical stories but should expect only enhanced recall of information, not understanding or visual recognition.