Sample 10: Research Project - sensationalized rumors (or tabloids)

Sometimes you can actually have fun with research. I was able to trick some students on campus with false entertainment news. The conclusion of this research also showed me that results don't always confirm one's hypothesis.






Conclusion
Despite the fact that both the Jonas/Gomez story and the Will Smith story were false, approximately one third of the respondents thought the news story were true. Thus the hypothesis that online news sources will affect a story's believability with readers is only partially confirmed. Instead the results show that the format of each story is very identifiable. People in this age group are habitual Internet users with immediate access to news from standard news providers such as CNN.com and tabloid news providers such as TMZ.com. Not only are they able to identify the source they have also formed an opinion on whether they enjoy one or both of these formats. When the individual responses are looked at, if the story was enjoyed it was most often believed. And if it was not enjoyed it was most often not believed. But it was not just the connection between enjoying the story and believing the story that account for the study’s results. There is also the previous research study that showed that overexposure has made unbelievable stories believable. Today, the Internet, TV and magazines have overexposed viewers to sensational news stories. In addition, the exposure time of the survey could also have contributed to believing mildly unbelievable news. According to the study done by Gibbons, Lukowski and Walker, the exposure of 4 minutes or more expecially when the exposure is simultaneous will make unbelievable news believable. This study duplicates their results.
The questinnaire provided with these two stories allowed the respondent to choose “MAYBE” instead of just “YES or NO.” That was done in order to acknowledge that perhaps over exposure to celebrity news that is created via speculation instead of facts has desensitized the public to the point that a “YES or NO” answer would have been problematic for the respondent. When the surveys were analyzed the “MAYBE” response was even with the “YES or NO” responses for both the Jonas/Gomez story and the Will Smith story. Perhaps the first statement of the Jonas/Gomez story best describes this study result. “Tell me something I don’t know.”