Are you smart? Then you watch logo! A comparison of the knowledge acquisition by the news programs Tagesschau and logo! and their linguistic design

Abstract

The present empirical study deals with the comparison of the Tagesschau with the children’s news from logo! It was assumed that the acquisition of knowledge by logo! is higher and that logo! is characterized by a lower language level, which could contribute to higher knowledge. To test the assumptions, an online experiment was designed which empirically tested the knowledge conveyed by both programs in the form of concrete contributions from 260 study participants. The language used was analyzed with the LIWC software; the Flesch-Index was also determined. The results show that logo! leads to a higher level of knowledge, although not equally for all contributions, and in some cases has a lower language level (lower word complexity and shorter sentences as well as a higher Flesch-Index). The higher knowledge in the logo! condition could thereby be partly explained by the language used, although the findings are not entirely clear. Finally, the logo! advantage was found to be greater for individuals with a university degree than for others, which becomes understandable in light of the knowledge gap hypothesis. From our findings, practical recommendations can be derived, among other things, for the linguistic design of TV news in order to improve knowledge acquisition.

Keywords

• tv news
• verbal proficiency
• eloquence
• language level
• quantitative computer-assisted text analysis
• knowledge gap hypothesis