Cluttered screens: an eye-tracking study of visual attention allocation among viewers of TV news

Contemporary television news programmes are often complex examples of hybrid communication (see Bucher, ‘Multimodal understanding or reception as interaction’, 2011). Television news presents related as well as unrelated information in both a linear and non-linear fashion by combining the news read with a variety of visual elements. Studies utilizing eye-tracking have found the visual attention received by the various types of elements to vary considerably (see Josephson and Holmes, ‘Clutter or content? How on-screen enhancements affect how TV viewers scan and what they learn’, 2006; Pjesivac et al., ‘Television infographics as orienting response’, 2021; Rodrigues et al., ‘A television news graphics layout analysis method using eye tracking, 2012; and ‘Analysis of the layout on TV news reception, 2014). ‘The limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (see Lang, ‘The limited capacity model of mediated message processing’, 2000) also suggests those elements can both positively and negatively impact viewers’ ability to effectively process information. The present study relates eye-tracking data with a multiple-choice information recall test by building generalized linear regression models to gain deeper insight into the effects of the diverse multimodality of modern digital screen layouts on visual attention and message processing. Six common visual elements of television news are presented in two experimental conditions of varying visual complexity. The study found a large difference in fixations received by and information recalled from different elements of the news screens. While the more complex condition’s effect on information recall was found to be not significant, it did significantly affect the distribution of fixations and gaze duration across screen elements. Biographical factors such as general news interest and time spent watching television were also found to significantly impact gaze behaviour.