TY - JOUR
T1 - Crisis, Credibility, and the Press
T2 - A Priming Model of News Evaluation
AU - Bucy, Erik P.
AU - D’Angelo, Paul
AU - Bauer, Nichole M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Support for this research was provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Texas Tech University.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2014.
PY - 2014/10/27
Y1 - 2014/10/27
N2 - This paper develops a model of press-priming in which public evaluations of press performance are examined in the context of media scandals where news organizations through their own ethical lapses become the subject and conduit of priming effects. We argue that judgments about the press during a crisis depend on the activation of standing attitudes toward press freedom and media responsibility, which come into play with close attention to ongoing developments. Our model is tested with original survey data collected around two salient press scandals in Britain, one involving the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, the other the storied British Broadcasting Corporation. Support for the model is found. In the aftermath of a press crisis, attitudes toward press freedom and media responsibility are situationally activated by the unique attributes of each scandal, and these attitudes shape evaluations of credibility and support for regulation. Implications for improved understanding of the news evaluation process are discussed.
AB - This paper develops a model of press-priming in which public evaluations of press performance are examined in the context of media scandals where news organizations through their own ethical lapses become the subject and conduit of priming effects. We argue that judgments about the press during a crisis depend on the activation of standing attitudes toward press freedom and media responsibility, which come into play with close attention to ongoing developments. Our model is tested with original survey data collected around two salient press scandals in Britain, one involving the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, the other the storied British Broadcasting Corporation. Support for the model is found. In the aftermath of a press crisis, attitudes toward press freedom and media responsibility are situationally activated by the unique attributes of each scandal, and these attitudes shape evaluations of credibility and support for regulation. Implications for improved understanding of the news evaluation process are discussed.
KW - BBC Jimmy Savile scandal
KW - News of the World
KW - media attitudes
KW - media credibility
KW - media priming
KW - phone hacking scandal
KW - press crisis
KW - support for regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84908121569&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1940161214541682
DO - 10.1177/1940161214541682
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84908121569
SN - 1940-1612
VL - 19
SP - 453
EP - 475
JO - International Journal of Press/Politics
JF - International Journal of Press/Politics
IS - 4
ER -