Written in Code

Exploring the Negative Effects of Acronyms in News Headlines

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12909830
AutoresAlyssa Appelman (0000-0003-3206-479X, Northern Kentucky University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen16
Número7
Páginas1495-1511
Fecha de publicación2021-01-05
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512786.2020.1867622
OpenAlexW3118810420
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas25

Through two experiments (N1 = 131, N2 = 520), this study looks at whether the negative effects of acronyms and abbreviations in headlines are based on their presence or their difficulty. In all, it finds support for a difficulty effect; people had lower content and source perceptions when they were shown a headline with unfamiliar acronym(s) compared with ones they knew, and they were more frustrated with those articles. These differences were moderated by need for cognition. In terms of a presence effect, people did perceive some differences in articles with acronyms in their headlines compared to those without, particularly if they were paying close attention, but those differences were much less pronounced. In other words, readers don’t seem to be inherently bothered by the presence of acronyms in headlines; they seem to be bothered by the ones they don’t understand. These findings suggest that journalists should strive to explain acronyms and abbreviations in headlines, rather than worry about avoiding them altogether. Implications for journalistic practice, reader engagement, and dual-processing theories of persuasion are discussed

Acronym · Cognition · Headline · Linguistics · Perception · Persuasion · Worry · Advanced Text Analysis Techniques · Digital Communication and Language · Educational Research and Analysis · Psychology · Social Psychology