Can More Pictures Bring More Readership?: An Examination of the “Picture Superiority Effect” in the News Consumption Process

“Picture superiority effect” refers to the notion that viewing pictures are more easily and frequently recalled than are concepts that are learned by viewing their written word form counterparts. In this paper, the author studied the “Picture superiority effect” in the news consumption process in order to see if pictures have significant impact on the readers when they select news from the Internet. The study will be conducted by analyzing almost 8000 pieces of news from one Chinese news App. The study's academic contribution lies in the influence of “picture superiority effect” in the mass media domain.