Effects of Medium and Presentation Style on Evaluation of a Communicator
To examine some aspects of the effects of channel and speech delivery style upon evaluations of a communicator, a 2 × 2 (channel × style) independent groups design was used. 32 high school boys and 72 girls heard a political speech presented by a professional actor over either simulated radio or television. Half the subjects heard the actor give an excited, emotional (hot) presentation of the speech; the others heard the speech presented in a relaxed, unemotional (cool) style. The subjects then rated the speaker on 44 dependent measures. Significant results were obtained for both the channel and the style factors. In general the speaker was evaluated more favorably after he had given the cool presentation than after he had presented the speech in the hot style. The television presentation was followed by more positive evaluations of the speaker than the radio presentation. In support of Marshall McLuhan's theory the cool speaker was evaluated more favorably than the hot speaker when on television but less favorably when on radio.