VIEWERS PERCEPTION OF FEMALE NEWSREADERS APPEARANCE ON TELEVISION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ATTENTION TO NEWS

Abstract

News presentation is the heart of news stations. Newsreaders or casters are trained to present news to heterogeneous audience. Many of television stations use young beautiful female newsreaders to cast their news. The physical appearance of the female newsreader may either attract viewers' attention to the news or not. The appearance of the female newsreader is viewed with different perceptions by millions of various viewing audiences. This study examines viewers' perception of female newsreaders' appearance on television and its influence on news attention. The study was anchored on social perception theory, which explains how people form impressions of and make inferences about other people. In order to determine this, two research approaches were adopted: research assistants rating scale and viewers' rating scale (VRS). The categories studied on female newsreader physical appearance were dress or attire, hairstyle, makeup/facial expression and voice quality. Three cable television stations were viewed. They were the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA); Channels Television and African Independent Television (AIT). The Krejcie Robert and Morgan Daryle sample size of 384 was adopted. However, 382 of the sample size were retrieved. Results showed that female newsreaders' appearance affects viewers' attention to news at the first few minutes of the news. While the female viewers are attracted to the general physical appearance, male viewers are attracted to facial beauty. The import of this is that physical appearance of a female newsreader distracts attention from the news if sexual appealing looks were applied. A moderate appearance was recommended for female newsreader.