Sight versus Sound: The Differential Impact of Mediated Spectator Response in Sport Broadcasts

Despite the research examining various production aspects of broadcast sport, scholars have generally overlooked a ubiquitous sonic component of broadcasts—spectators’ aural response (i.e., crowd noise). Such cues can act as a heuristic to influence perceptions of competition, particularly in the absence of visuals. Using continuous response measurement, this experiment demonstrates how mediated spectator response in the form of crowd noise yields enhanced perceptions of the exciting nature of broadcast sport, although the effect is diminished in televised sports. Implications are suggested for contemporary sport consumption, where aural cues can draw attention to game events in multi-screen viewing scenarios.