Platform and Proximity: Audience Responses to Crime News on Desktop Computers and Smartphones

摘要

This study explored how geographical proximity of news stories (local or international news stories) and bodily proximity of news platforms (reading news on a smartphone or desktop computer) affects people's cognitive and emotional processing of news messages. The results suggested that geographical and bodily proximity interact to affect individuals' attentional engagement with the news messages. Reading crime news that happens in a distant location on smartphones resulted in greater heart rate deceleration and self-perceived engagement, as compared to reading those stories on desktop computers.