Going Live: A Look at Memory, Enjoyment, Perceived Learning and Credibility, Across Live Streaming and Non-Live Short-Form Video Viewing

Short-form videos, often found on TikTok but available across social media, are increasing in both popularity and in the frequency that they are sought out for informational purposes. Short-form videos can be delivered via live streaming or via pre-recorded messages, both of which provide different affordances to users. We explore two of these affordances: The synchronous communication between viewers, creators, and moderators permitted by live streaming short-form videos, and the presence of visuals in videos, which provide complementary information via a second perceptual processing stream. An experiment with an undergraduate student sample (N = 412) was conducted. Data demonstrates a clear pattern of live streaming (with its synchronous communication affordances) resulting in greater enjoyment, perceived credibility, perceived learning, and recall memory, whereas the presence of visuals does not influence most of these outcomes. Implications are discussed.