Emotional Response in the Context of Homicide News as a Function of Headline Framing

Abstract

The present study aimed to understand the emotional impact of homicide news on the audience as a function of episodically versus thematically framed headlines, specifically in the context of news across contemporary platforms, such as social media and smartphone short news notifications. The study utilizes framing and media theories, emotional appraisal theories, and Affect Infusion Model from psychology to test the emotional response to news headlines as a function of the framing type. A sample of 119 participants gave self-reported ratings of emotional intensity of five emotions for ten headlines presented in randomized order. Headlines were based on five different types of homicide, and one episodic and one thematic headline was presented for each type. The findings indicated that episodically framed headlines elicited significantly more intense emotions than their thematic counterparts.

Keywords

news homicide headline framing emotional response media ethics

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