How Sex and Race Affect Perceptions of Newscasters

Abstract

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...

Interacting Is Believing

“…The results offer insights into how people make quick judgments about credibility on a fast-moving platform such as Twitter. Previous studies in journalists' credibility evaluation suggested variables such as gender influence audience perceptions of journalist credibility (Balon et al, 1978;Brann & Himes, 2010;Weibel et al, 2008). One conclusion from these previous studies is that older, White male journalists are considered to be more credible and trustworthy than female journalists.…”

“…Journalistic credibility also is evaluated based on an individual's characteristics that go beyond individual stories produced. For example, female journalists often are considered less credible in covering hard news than male journalists (Balon, Philport, & Beadle, 1978;Brann & Himes, 2010;Weibel, Wissmath, & Groner, 2008). Similarly, physical attractiveness also is known to influence credibility ratings (Patzer, 1983).…”

The station scientist: Examining the impact of race and sex of broadcast meteorologists on credibility, trust, and information retention

“…Among college students though, Werner and LaRussa (1985) found that participants found women to have higher trustworthiness than men. Specific to news, research has found that older newscasters are perceived to be more credible, in particular older men (Weibel et al, 2008); white newscasters have been rated in a more positive manner for extroversion, cheerfulness, and qualification (Balon et al, 1978); and Burgoon (1978) found that those with slower vocalizations were rated more competent and composed while being rated as less likely to influence judgements of character, sociability, and extroversion. Finally, individuals rated higher in physical attractiveness can be seen as being higher in liking toward that individual and having expertise and trustworthiness than a lower-rated attractiveness individual.…”

Perceptions of Media and Media Effects:

“…Newhagen and Nass (1989) found that audience trust in a news story is related to their perception of the individual person presenting the news story. Factors such as race and gender of the newscaster were related to audience trust (with males perceived as more trustworthy than females, and race affecting perceived trust only for male newscasters; Balon, Philport, & Beadle, 1978 ). Medium characteristics such as television ' s ability to provide sound and pictures as evidence supporting the claims of the news stories, and the possibility to use hyperlinks to external sources in online news, explained why television news was perceived as more credible compared to print journalism in the 1960s, and online news was perceived as more newsworthy than television news early in the twenty -fi rst century (Kiousis, 2001 ).…”