How Production Value Impacts Perceived Technical Quality, Credibility, and Economic Value of Video News

Abstract

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.