Effect of source attribution on perception of online news stories

Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly

Volumn 75, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 55-68

  Sundar, S Shyam ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0001898388     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769909807500108     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Noted journalist Pierre Salinger claimed that the U.S. government was covering up the TWA crash investigation because he found pictorial evidence in various internet sites which suggested that a U.S. Navy missile shot down the commercial aircraft. After many months in the media spotlight, this theory behind the crash was dismissed when the evidence turned out to be false. Similarly, many stories relating to President Clinton's sex scandal in early 1998 broke on the internet (and was enthusiastically disseminated by mainstream media) but were later proven to be false.
2. John Newhagen and Clifford Nass, "Differential Criteria for Evaluating Credibility of Newspapers and TV News," Journalism Quarterly 66 (summer 1989): 277-84.
3. Richard F. Carter and Bradley S. Greenberg, "Newspaper or Television: Which do you Believe?" Journalism Quarterly 42 (winter 1965): 29-34; John D. Abel and Michael O. Wirth, "Newspaper vs. TV Credibility for Local News," Journalism Quarterly 54 (summer 1977): 371-75.
4. Richard F. Carter and Bradley S. Greenberg, "Newspaper or Television: Which do you Believe?" Journalism Quarterly 42 (winter 1965): 29-34; John D. Abel and Michael O. Wirth, "Newspaper vs. TV Credibility for Local News," Journalism Quarterly 54 (summer 1977): 371-75.
5. Elizabeth J. Wilson and Daniel L. Sherrell, "Source Effects in Communication and Persuasion Research: A Meta-Analysis of Effect Size," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 21 (spring 1993): 101-112; R. Glenn Hass, "Effects of Source Characteristics on Cognitive Responses and Persuasion," in Cognitive Responses in Persuasion, ed. Richard E. Petty, Thomas M. Ostrom, and Timothy C. Brock (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 141-72; Carl I. Hovland and Walter Weiss, "The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness," Public Opinion Quarterly 15 (winter 1951-52): 635-50.
6. Elizabeth J. Wilson and Daniel L. Sherrell, "Source Effects in Communication and Persuasion Research: A Meta-Analysis of Effect Size," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 21 (spring 1993): 101-112; R. Glenn Hass, "Effects of Source Characteristics on Cognitive Responses and Persuasion," in Cognitive Responses in Persuasion, ed. Richard E. Petty, Thomas M. Ostrom, and Timothy C. Brock (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 141-72; Carl I. Hovland and Walter Weiss, "The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness," Public Opinion Quarterly 15 (winter 1951-52): 635-50.
7. Elizabeth J. Wilson and Daniel L. Sherrell, "Source Effects in Communication and Persuasion Research: A Meta-Analysis of Effect Size," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 21 (spring 1993): 101-112; R. Glenn Hass, "Effects of Source Characteristics on Cognitive Responses and Persuasion," in Cognitive Responses in Persuasion, ed. Richard E. Petty, Thomas M. Ostrom, and Timothy C. Brock (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 141-72; Carl I. Hovland and Walter Weiss, "The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness," Public Opinion Quarterly 15 (winter 1951-52): 635-50.
8. Melvin Mencher, News Reporting and Writing (Madison, WI: WCB Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1994); Brian S. Brooks, George Kennedy, Daryl R. Moen, and Don Ranly, News Reporting and Writing (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1992).
9. Melvin Mencher, News Reporting and Writing (Madison, WI: WCB Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1994); Brian S. Brooks, George Kennedy, Daryl R. Moen, and Don Ranly, News Reporting and Writing (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1992).
10. See, for example, J. P. Jones, Gathering and Writing the News (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976), and D. Newson and J. A. Wollert, Media Writing: News for the Mass Media (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1985).
11. See, for example, J. P. Jones, Gathering and Writing the News (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976), and D. Newson and J. A. Wollert, Media Writing: News for the Mass Media (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1985).
12. Ralph S. Izard, Hugh M. Culbertson, and Donald A. Lambert, Fundamentals of News Reporting (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1971); W. Fox, Writing the News: Print Journalism in the Electronic Age (NY: Hastings House, 1977), 74.
13. Ralph S. Izard, Hugh M. Culbertson, and Donald A. Lambert, Fundamentals of News Reporting (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1971); W. Fox, Writing the News: Print Journalism in the Electronic Age (NY: Hastings House, 1977), 74.
14. Gaye Tuchman, "Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen's Notions of Objectivity," American Journal of Sociology 77 (January 1972): 660-79.
15. Ithiel DeSola Pool and I. Shulman, "Newsmen's fantasies, audiences, and newswriting," Public Opinion Quarterly 23 (summer 1959): 145-58; Tuchman, "Objectivity as Strategic Ritual."
16. Ithiel DeSola Pool and I. Shulman, "Newsmen's fantasies, audiences, and newswriting," Public Opinion Quarterly 23 (summer 1959): 145-58; Tuchman, "Objectivity as Strategic Ritual."
17. William James McGuire, "Attitudes and Attitude Change," in Handbook of Social Psychology (3d ed.), ed. Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1985); Pamela J. Shoemaker, Commmunication Concepts 3: Gatekeeping (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 1991).
18. William James McGuire, "Attitudes and Attitude Change," in Handbook of Social Psychology (3d ed.), ed. Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1985); Pamela J. Shoemaker, Commmunication Concepts 3: Gatekeeping (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 1991).
19. See, for example, Ruth Hamill, Timothy D. Wilson, and Richard E. Nisbett, "Insensitivity to sample bias: Generalizing from atypical cases," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39 (October 1980): 578-89, and Dolf Zillmann, Joseph W. Perkins Jr., and S. Shyam Sundar, "Impression Formation Effects of Printed News Varying in Descriptive Precision and Exemplifications," Medienpsychologie 4 (September 1992): 168-85, 239-40.
20. See, for example, Ruth Hamill, Timothy D. Wilson, and Richard E. Nisbett, "Insensitivity to sample bias: Generalizing from atypical cases," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39 (October 1980): 578-89, and Dolf Zillmann, Joseph W. Perkins Jr., and S. Shyam Sundar, "Impression Formation Effects of Printed News Varying in Descriptive Precision and Exemplifications," Medienpsychologie 4 (September 1992): 168-85, 239-40.
21. David H. Weaver, W. Wat Hopkins, William H. Billings, and Richard R. Cole, "Quotes vs. Paraphrases in Writing: Does it make a Difference to Readers?" Journalism Quarterly 51 (autumn 1974): 400-404.
22. F. Dennis Hale, "Unnamed News Sources: Their Impact on the Perceptions of Stories," Newspaper Research Journal 5 (winter 1984): 49-56.
23. Fred Fedler and Tim Counts, "Variations in Attribution Affect Readers' Evaluations of Stories," Newspaper Research Journal 2 (April 1981): 25-34
24. Hugh M. Culbertson and Nancy Somerick, "Cloaked Attribution - What Does it Mean to News Readers?" (Washington, DC: American Newspaper Publishers Association News Research Bulletin, 1976).
25. Hugh M. Culbertson and Nancy Somerick, "Variables Affect How Persons View Unnamed News Sources," Journalism Quarterly 54 (spring 1977): 58-69.
26. Rhonda Gibson and Dolf Zillmann, "The Impact of Quotation in News Reports on Issue Perception," Journalism Quarterly 70 (winter 1993): 793-800.
27. Albert C. Gunther, "Extremity of Attitude and Trust in Media News Coverage of Issues" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1987); Wilson and Sherrell, "Source Effects"; McGuire, "Attitudes"; Hovland and Weiss, "Influence of Source Credibility."
28. Albert C. Gunther, "Extremity of Attitude and Trust in Media News Coverage of Issues" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1987); Wilson and Sherrell, "Source Effects"; McGuire, "Attitudes"; Hovland and Weiss, "Influence of Source Credibility."
29. Albert C. Gunther, "Extremity of Attitude and Trust in Media News Coverage of Issues" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1987); Wilson and Sherrell, "Source Effects"; McGuire, "Attitudes"; Hovland and Weiss, "Influence of Source Credibility."
30. Albert C. Gunther, "Extremity of Attitude and Trust in Media News Coverage of Issues" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1987); Wilson and Sherrell, "Source Effects"; McGuire, "Attitudes"; Hovland and Weiss, "Influence of Source Credibility."
31. Robert B. Zajonc, "Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences," American Psychologist 35 (February 1980): 151-72; Robert B. Zajonc, "On the Primacy of Affect," American Psychologist 39 (February 1984): 117-23.
32. Robert B. Zajonc, "Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences," American Psychologist 35 (February 1980): 151-72; Robert B. Zajonc, "On the Primacy of Affect," American Psychologist 39 (February 1984): 117-23.
33. See, for example, Clifford Nass, Byron Reeves, and Glenn Leshner, "Technology and Roles: A Tale of Two TVs," Journal of Communication 46 (spring 1996): 121-28.
34. Glenn Leshner, "Switching Channels: The Effects of Channel Specialization and Differentiation on Judgment, Evaluation, and Memory of Television Information" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1994); Michael D. Slater and Donna Rouner, "How Message Evaluation and Source Attributes May Influence Credibility Assessment and Belief Change," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (winter 1996): 974-91; Gibson and Zillmann, "Impact of Quotation."
35. Glenn Leshner, "Switching Channels: The Effects of Channel Specialization and Differentiation on Judgment, Evaluation, and Memory of Television Information" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1994); Michael D. Slater and Donna Rouner, "How Message Evaluation and Source Attributes May Influence Credibility Assessment and Belief Change," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (winter 1996): 974-91; Gibson and Zillmann, "Impact of Quotation."
36. Glenn Leshner, "Switching Channels: The Effects of Channel Specialization and Differentiation on Judgment, Evaluation, and Memory of Television Information" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1994); Michael D. Slater and Donna Rouner, "How Message Evaluation and Source Attributes May Influence Credibility Assessment and Belief Change," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (winter 1996): 974-91; Gibson and Zillmann, "Impact of Quotation."
37. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases," Science 185 (27 September 1974): 1124-1131.
38. For a detailed explication of the concept of representativeness, see S. Shyam Sundar, "Psychological Criteria of News" (paper presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Montréal, Canada, 1997). See also Amos Tversky, "Features of Similarity," Psychological Review 84 (July 1977): 327-52; Eleanor Rosch, "Cognitive Reference Points," Cognitive Psychology 7 (October 1975): 532-47; and Eleanor Rosch, "Principles of Categorization," in Cognition and Categorization, ed. Eleanor Rosch and Barbara B. Lloyd (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978).
39. For a detailed explication of the concept of representativeness, see S. Shyam Sundar, "Psychological Criteria of News" (paper presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Montréal, Canada, 1997). See also Amos Tversky, "Features of Similarity," Psychological Review 84 (July 1977): 327-52; Eleanor Rosch, "Cognitive Reference Points," Cognitive Psychology 7 (October 1975): 532-47; and Eleanor Rosch, "Principles of Categorization," in Cognition and Categorization, ed. Eleanor Rosch and Barbara B. Lloyd (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978).
40. For a detailed explication of the concept of representativeness, see S. Shyam Sundar, "Psychological Criteria of News" (paper presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Montréal, Canada, 1997). See also Amos Tversky, "Features of Similarity," Psychological Review 84 (July 1977): 327-52; Eleanor Rosch, "Cognitive Reference Points," Cognitive Psychology 7 (October 1975): 532-47; and Eleanor Rosch, "Principles of Categorization," in Cognition and Categorization, ed. Eleanor Rosch and Barbara B. Lloyd (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978).
41. For a detailed explication of the concept of representativeness, see S. Shyam Sundar, "Psychological Criteria of News" (paper presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Montréal, Canada, 1997). See also Amos Tversky, "Features of Similarity," Psychological Review 84 (July 1977): 327-52; Eleanor Rosch, "Cognitive Reference Points," Cognitive Psychology 7 (October 1975): 532-47; and Eleanor Rosch, "Principles of Categorization," in Cognition and Categorization, ed. Eleanor Rosch and Barbara B. Lloyd (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978).
42. In order to measure gatekeeper effects for an unrelated study, a fourth of the subjects were told that the news stories were selected by news editors, another one-fourth were told that they were selected by the computer terminal, yet another one-fourth were told that they were chosen by other members (or users) of the online news service, and the final one-fourth were given a pseudo-selection task leading them to believe that the stories were chosen by themselves. Since this gatekeeper manipulation did not interact significantly with the independent variable on any of the dependent variables, it will not be discussed in this article.
43. One can imagine a third condition wherein the quotation marks are removed but the source attribution is retained. Since this study attempted to study the effects of quoted sources and not quotation marks per se, it was decided not to include this possible third condition in this study.
44. James L. Bruning and B. L. Kintz, Computational Handbook of Statistics (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1968), 43-47.
45. For ease of interpretation, all four indices were reduced to ten-point scales.
46. Means (with standard deviations in parentheses) on the four indices for the two conditions are as follows: Credibility Liking Quality Representativeness Quote 6.51 (1.48) 4.48 (1.77) 6.24 (1.64) 5.18 (1.90) No-Quote 5.47(1.89) 4.40(1.71) 5.25(1.98) 5.20(1.70)
47. Hale, "Unnamed News Sources."
48. Weaver, Hopkins, Billings, and Cole, "Quotes vs. Paraphrases."
49. For more information on framing, see "Online Publishers Wage a Battle Over Frame and Fortune," Washington Post, 11 February 1997, sec. D, p. 1.
50. A case in point is the enormous circulation enjoyed by under-sourced stories in The Drudge Report, an internet publication run by Matt Drudge, a self-acknowledged scandal monger who uses a wide variety of internet tools (e-mail, listserv, websites) to quickly circulate celebrity and political gossip. Regardless of whether his stories eventually turn out to be true or false, they are widely discussed in television talk shows and newspaper columns in the meantime. Many stories in the Drudge Report have later been declared false. Drudge's most notorious gaffe was a story which claimed that a senior White House official was charged with spousal abuse, a story that he was forced to retract publicly.
51. Culbertson and Somerick, "Variables."