Telepresence and the Exemplification Effects of Disaster News

Exemplification theory (Zillmann, 1999 Zillmann , D. (1999). Exemplification theory: Judging the whole by the sum of its parts. Media Psychology , 1, 69–94.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], 2002 Zillmann , D. ( 2002 ). Exemplification theory of media influence . In J. Bryant &; D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research ( , 2nd ed. , pp. 213 – 245 ). Mahwah , NJ : LEA . [Google Scholar]; Zillmann &; Brosius, 2000 Zillmann , D. , &; Brosius , H.-B. ( 2000 ). Exemplification in communication: The influence of case reports on the perception of issues . Mahwah , NJ : LEA . [Google Scholar]) suggests exemplar representations in media content may cause people to make overestimated judgments about phenomena included in this content. The current study sought to examine the role telepresence plays in increasing this exemplification effect. Two-hundred and seventeen participants viewed a news story about Hurricane Katrina using one of three channels: HDTV, NTSC, or on an iPod. Data were consistent with predictions as participants who experienced greater spatial presence and perceptual realism while watching this news story reported increased judgments of the severity of hurricanes and also reported a greater likelihood to engage in behaviors associated with hurricanes. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

How can Journalists Promote News Credibility? Effects of Evidences on Trust and Credibility

ABSTRACT

With reference to the current debate about a loss of trust in news media, journalism experts in practice and research often demand that journalists should concentrate on enhancing the quality of their reporting and hence focus on facts and evidences. Building on research on trust and credibility, we investigate how the use of different forms of evidences affects the credibility and quality evaluation of news stories, as well as the reading experience from the audience’s perspective. We conducted an online experiment to detect the influence of the presence of scientific sources, statistical information, and their visualization in an online article. Our findings indicate that these evidences increase the perceived credibility. At the same time, we found that adding scientific sources, statistical data and, visualizations to an article does not lessen its reading enjoyment but improves its perceived vividness in the view of news users. Further results and implications are discussed.     

Beyond Vox Pop: The Role of News Sourcing and Political Beliefs in Exemplification Effects

The people we see in news media can affect our perceptions of public opinion through exemplification. Although research shows that individuals interviewed in a news story can influence perceptions of public opinion, little attention has been paid to the role that source type and audience attitudes play in the exemplification process. This study tests how the exemplification process is influenced by different types of news sources featured in an article (e.g., vox pop, protester, and interest group interviews) and the audience's own political ideology. The study finds that the perceived typicality of sources is affected by both source type and how much an audience member agrees with the source. Source type is also found to directly affect perceptions of public opinion.     

Credibility of Radio News

This study used a statewide sample of 400 Alabama residents to analyze the relative credibility of local radio news, as compared to local television and local radio. The results indicated that local radio news has a level of credibility that is lower than that of local television, but is comparable to that of local newspapers. This finding confirms previous studies that have noted that media consumers tend to have a higher regard for television than any other news medium, but this difference was not as dramatic as those reported by studies that have used forced-choice questions. Local television is indeed more credible than local radio news, but not dramatically so.     

The Role of Exemplification in Shaping Third-Person Perceptions and Support for Restrictions on Video Games

The origins of third-person perceptions remain uncertain, with most research focusing on psychological mechanisms. We investigate whether media content might also play a role, using a 2 × 2 experiment presenting a single story describing video games as harmful or harmless and using either research and statistics or a specific anecdotal exemplar to illustrate this claim. Results show perceived effects on others are influenced by the use of an exemplar but do not show an effect for explicitly describing games as harmful. The findings suggest that media may influence third-person perceptions and subsequent support for censorship in previously unexplored ways.     

Partisans and Controversial News Online: Comparing Perceptions of Bias and Credibility in News Content From Blogs and Mainstream Media

Based on the hostile media effect (HME), this 2 (partisan opinion) × 2 (news source) × 2 (content valence) factorial experiment investigated how partisans (N = 132), in terms of perceived bias and credibility, assess same-sex marriage coverage by either an online mainstream news source or a citizen blog. Partisans who disagreed with the content's valence evaluated both mainstream online news and the blog posting as more biased and less credible than did partisans who agreed with the content's valence. The perceived reach of blog postings appears to generate a relative HME similar to that triggered by mainstream news. In particular, this study suggests that user-generated content—specifically blog postings—might generate a stronger relative HME than that observed with mainstream news.     

Credibility in Context: How Uncivil Online Commentary Affects News Credibility

In the new media environment, hard news stories are no longer found solely in the “A” section of the paper or on the front page of a news Web site. They are now distributed widely, appearing in contexts as disparate as a partisan blog or your own e-mail inbox, forwarded by a friend. In this study, we investigate how the credibility of a news story is affected by the context in which it appears. Results of an experiment show a news story embedded in an uncivil partisan blog post appears more credible in contrast. Specifically, a blogger's incivility highlights the relative credibility of the newspaper article. We also find that incivility and partisan disagreement in an adjacent blog post produce stronger correlations between ratings of news and blog credibility. These findings suggest that news story credibility is affected by context and that these context effects can have surprising benefits for news organizations. Findings are consistent with predictions of social judgment theory.     

解析中国媒介新闻可信度

本文以上海居民为研究样本(N=800)进行问卷调查,检验中国公众如何判断传统媒介和网络的新闻可信度,并探求了哪些因素影响这些媒介的新闻可信度。研究发现,中国公众认为电视新闻最可信,传统媒介的新闻比网络新闻更可信;媒介依赖比媒介使用能更好地预测媒介新闻可信度;人口学变量对评估网络新闻可信度没有影响,年龄和文化程度影响人们对传统媒介新闻可信度的评估;人们使用不同的评价标准评定不同媒介的新闻可信度,没有任何一个媒介表现因素对所有的媒介新闻可信度产生影响。     

(Re)Viewing Reviews: Effects of Emotionality and Valence on Credibility Perceptions in Online Consumer Reviews

This study examines credibility perceptions in online consumer reviews. Specifically, this work investigates the effects of review emotionality (high vs. low), review valence (positive vs. negative), and individuals’ need for affect on source credibility and information credibility. In an online experiment, U.S. adults (N = 327) viewed a product review from Amazon.com varied across four experimental conditions. Results indicate that high-emotionality reviews are perceived as lower in source and information credibility compared to low-emotionality reviews. A moderated mediation model was tested with the source credibility dimensions as possible mediators of information credibility and need for affect as a moderator for the effects of review emotionality. The effects of emotionality on information credibility were significantly mediated by source trustworthiness, and this mediation was moderated by participants’ need for affect, with the credibility-hampering effects of emotionality found only among participants with low and moderate levels of need for affect.     

The Expression of Dominance and Perceptions of Supervisor Credibility in Supervisor/Employee Relationships

In the workplace, a supervisor’s communication of dominance can be used to help accomplish tasks and complete work. Further, perceptions of credibility can be integral in influencing employees and creating an open work climate. The goal of this investigation was to understand how supervisors’ messages of dominance were related to perceptions of supervisor credibility. In this study, 303 participants working in various industries completed measures of interpersonal dominance and credibility about their direct supervisor. As hypothesized, influence and focus/poise were positively related to competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness, whereas conversational control was negatively related to goodwill and trustworthiness. Further, self-assurance was negatively related to goodwill. Regression analyses determined that influence and focus/poise had the strongest relationship to all three dimensions of credibility.     

Aggregation,Clickbait and Their Effect on Perceptions of Journalistic Credibility and Quality

ABSTRACT

Many journalists and industry observers lament that aggregating news underneath sensational headlines will erode credibility and turn off readers. While some scholarly work has studied journalists’ perspectives of this practice, little has been done to understand what audiences think of aggregation and clickbait. This study uses published original and aggregated news articles as stimuli in two online experiments to test readers’ perceptions of news aggregation and clickbait. Aggregation itself has little effect on perceptions of credibility and quality; instead, writing proficiency is more closely linked to these perceptions. Results also suggest clickbait headlines may lower perceptions of credibility and quality.     

Influence of Story Structure on Perceived Story Bias and News Organization Credibility

An experiment was conducted to illuminate the effects of balanced and imbalanced conflict story structure on perceived story bias and news organization credibility. Participants read mock newspaper stories on capital punishment, flat income tax rate, and drinking age that were systematically manipulated to be balanced or imbalanced. Imbalanced stories favored either the pro or the con side on each issue. Participants were randomly assigned to read one story about each issue. Results showed participants perceived imbalanced stories as biased and correctly identified the side favored by the story's imbalance. Participants evaluated newspapers apparently responsible for balanced stories as more credible than newspapers apparently publishing stories imbalanced to favor one side or the other on the issue. Imbalanced story structure directly led to perceived story bias, and perceived story bias in turn led to negative evaluation of the credibility of the newspaper publishing the imbalanced story.     

Examining First- and Second-Order Factor Structures for News Credibility

The construct of news credibility has been of interest to communication scholars for decades, yet researchers have struggled to develop a measure of news credibility that demonstrates a reliable factor structure and construct validity. This study uses confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and discriminant analysis to evaluate Abdulla and colleagues’ (2004) measure of news credibility. Results indicate that although the factor structure of the measure is replicable, the measure exhibits significant concerns related to discriminant validity. A revised measurement model employing a second-order factor for the news credibility scale that eliminates the discriminant validity concerns is proposed, and the implications of second-order factors in measurement models are discussed.     

Effects of Instructor Speech Rate on Student Affective Learning,Recall, and Perceptions of Nonverbal Immediacy,Credibility, and Clarity

Although research indicates that speech rate affects perceptions of speaker credibility as well as persuasiveness and information recall, research has failed to address how instructor speech rate affects student perceptions and learning. This study randomly assigned basic communication course students to one of three speech rate conditions (slow, moderate, fast), using a videotaped lesson by an instructor. Findings revealed significant differences for credibility, affective leaning, and nonverbal immediacy, but did not reveal significant differences for recall or clarity. Implications for instructional practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Perceived Source Credibility of Local Television News: The Impact of Television Form and Presence

An increasing number of local news stations are producing and broadcasting their newscasts in high-definition television (HDTV), but to date there has not been an investigation of audience perceptions of news in high definition. This study presents the results from an experiment investigating the influence of television form (image quality and field of view) on presence and audiences' perceptions of source credibility for news anchors and local news. The results demonstrate that improved image quality (HDTV) has a positive influence on audience perceptions of source credibility and the overall credibility of newscasts. Implications are discussed.     

Mr. Mom in the News: The Relationship Between Stereotypes and Perceptions of Gendered News Stories

This study examined the relationship between women’s stereotypes and their perceptions of gendered news stories, specifically about stay-at-home parenthood. A between-subjects experiment with undergraduate women revealed that participants with stereotypes about women thought a news story about a stay-at-home mother was more typical than one about a stay-at-home father. Additionally, participants with stereotypes about women thought the news stories were low in realism, regardless of the story’s gendered content. Notably, participants who read the news story about a stay-at-home father found it more enjoyable than the story about a stay-at-home mother, regardless of their stereotypes.     

The Hostile Media Phenomenon: Testing the Effect of News Framing on Perceptions of Media Bias

Recent theorizing in hostile media perception (HMP) has focused on the impact of news content on perceptions of media bias. Using a 2 (an outcome frame versus a value frame) × 2 (a societal frame versus an individual frame) experimental design (N = 114), this study examined the differential effects of news frames on perceptions of media bias. The results showed that an outcome frame induced relatively less HMP than a value frame. Further, a societal frame was more likely to elicit HMP than an individual frame when the medical abortion controversy was framed in term of values (vs. outcomes). Directions for future research on the potential impact of news framing on HMP were discussed.     

Priming and Fake News: The Effects of Elite Discourse on Evaluations of News Media

Fake news has become a prominent topic of public discussion, particularly among elites. Recent research has explored the prevalence of fake news during the 2016 election cycle and possible effects on electoral outcomes. This scholarship has not yet considered how elite discourse surrounding fake news may influence individual perceptions of real news. Through an experiment, this study explores the effects of elite discourse about fake news on the public’s evaluation of news media. Results show that exposure to elite discourse about fake news leads to lower levels of trust in media and less accurate identification of real news. Therefore, frequent discussion of fake news may affect whether individuals trust news media and the standards with which they evaluate it. This discourse may also prompt the dissemination of false information, particularly when fake news is discussed by elites without context and caution.     

The Effect of Perceived Teacher Burnout on Credibility

This study investigated the effect of perceived teacher burnout on perceived teacher credibility. One hundred eighty-two college students were randomly exposed to a written scenario manipulating the level of perceived teacher burnout (high or low) and responded to a scale measuring perceived teacher credibility in reference to the scenario. Results of one-way multivariate analyses of variance indicated that perceived teacher burnout has a negative impact on perceived teacher competence, caring, and trustworthiness. Low-burnout teachers are perceived as more credible than high-burnout teachers.