The study presents a n analysis of the effects of a TV newscaster's sex and race on audience perceptions of credibility. While the factors of sex and race and their relation to source credibility have been examined in a number of studies. research has yet to be conducted on the interactive effects of sex and race.Stone' and Whitaker and Whitaker2 found no differences in audience perceptions of male and female newscasters. Unfortunately, no significant research exists which examines the black newscaster in depth. However, Greenburg' and Surlin and Tate4 have looked at the concept of the black media figure and found it ambiguous for both blacks and whites. Thus, while not attempting to draw a parallel between news and entertainment on any overt level (the Greenburg and Surlin and Tate pieces were entertainment oriented) the authors-for want of more conclusive evidence-tentatively suggested that when a largely white audience views a news program, the presence of a black anchorperson may trigger subtle perceptual cues which could differ significantly from the perceptions of that audience of a white anchorperson. That those perceptual cues could be multidimensional in nature has been underscored by Avery and McDermotts and by Markam 6 who found that different personalities on electronic media generated different responses in terms of audience perceptions of credibility.Balon is assistant professor and Beadle assistant instructor of radio-television-film at Texas. Philport is assistant professor of radio-television-film at Maryland.Given the fact that upon combining sex and race in a n evalutive paradigm the differences or lack of differences indicated above may be significantly altered, and on the basis of the previously cited research, three predictions were derived: I ) sex and race will interact significantly in the determination of differences in newscaster credibility; 2) sex will not have an effect on an isolated agent on audience perceptions of female and male newscasters; and 3) the audience will percieve blacks as being less qualified and less reliable than whites when both are considered as anchorpersons. MethodologyMuch research regarding credibility has utilized factor analysis; scores of articles are available which have isolated dimensions of credibility. But as Singletary7 has suggested. the concept of credibility is such a large and ambiguous construct that assignment ofall its many components to several "mathematical" factors could hardly begin to account for a substantial amount of variance. Extending the argument further, if one takes the concept of factor orthogonality at face value, then the plethora of factor analytic studies isolating dimensions of credibility are of little use in post hoc analyses which utilize factor scores or other such parsimonious reduction of data.While a n initial factor analysis was performed in the study (for data reduction), I Vernon A Stone. -Attitude\ Toward Iclcvwon Sews. women" Journal of Broadtu.~rtng. I X 4962. I IY74l. 'Susan Whiukcr and Ron Whiuker. 'Relative E...
Study of prison inmates'viewing preferences finds crime-action programs form first factor common to all inmate groups.b While a n exhaustive body of research has been compiled regarding the relationship between television violence and aggressive behavior among children, behavioral science has consistently ignored the role that television violence, along with other variables, may play in the life of the aggressive adult, and more specifically, the adult prison inmate. The lack of research may be attributed to the difficulty of obtaining access to prison populations and to the prevailing belief that adults are relatively immune to the effects of violent media; however, as studies by Loye, et. aL,I have shown, adults can experience significant emotional reactions to violent programming. And, as several researchers have indicated, despite the inherent problems of prison researoh, studying men and women who have been markedly anti-social has a distinct advantage over trying to predict or categorize aggressive behavior among groups of youngsters who have been exposed to television violence.2 -In ex post fwto designs, incarcerated populations allow the researcher the relative freedom of ignoring the liklihood of subjects actually committing a socially dysfunctional act; indeed, the acts have already been committed. It remains for the researchb The author is an assistant professor in the Dcpartment of Radio-Television-Film at Texas. 288er to concentrate on those acts and the history of media-related learning which may have precipitated them.A review of the literature pertaining to prison inmates and mass media violence revealed two contrasting schools of thought; 1 ) Studies by Blumer, Herbert and Hauser.) Cressney and Thrasher,' Hoults and Haines6 suggested that there was a significant positive correlation between criminal behavior and attendance to various mass media; i.e., film, comics, television. These studies gave rise to the assumption that assaultive persons will seek out and utilize violent stimuli to a degree significantly greater than their socially conforming peers. 2) Later studies by P f h~l ,~ Maletzke,* Basset, Cowden and Cohen? Menzies,'! and Heller and Polsky.11 have suggested that violent crime is the result of a number of external I Dawd Loye and 1 . 0~s Johnson. 'Television !Elizabeth Mcnzics 'Preferences in Iclcvi~ion ('onFor I (IVC or Violence." Human Brhovror. 3. 32-33 (1'9761 tent Among Violent Prisoners '' N . 1 Rcarun h R q m r r~, I 1 Herbert Rlumcr and Phillip Hauser Muvir,. 1)clinyuc~n~ t and Crime. (New York. MacMillan. 19311 'Paul Cresscy and Frederick lhra\hcr B o b > . N~,viu,. andCtiySlrrers. (New York. Macmillan. 19141 'T.F. Hoult. T o m i c Books and .Iiivenilc t)elinqucnc\ " SorioluRy and Soriol Research 32 279-284. 1104Ul 6 William Haincs "Juvenile Iklinqiicncy and Tclc\icmn '' JourMlo/Soriol Therapy 1 192-198. (195.0 'Erdwin Pfhul "Thc Relation\hip of Ma.;\ Mccli:i 11) Kcp n c d klinqucnr Behavior " WashinRton S t~t c I:ni\crwv. 1960. I)issmarion Ahsiro'r,. 21 3S.VI-3T5Sl. 119611 '...
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