TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the Impact of Delivery Mistakes, Gender, and Empathic Concern on Source and Message Credibility
AU - Gong, Zijian Harrison
AU - Eppler, James
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This study explores the impact of television news anchor delivery mistakes on message and source credibility evaluations and whether gender, news context, and empathic concern moderate this effect. The results of an experiment showed that viewers have the highest appraisal of anchors with perfect delivery, and evaluation suffers precipitously with increased mistakes. When evaluating short news clips, viewers were more tolerant of the female news anchor making three delivery mistakes than the male, but both genders suffered equally when the number of mistakes increased to five. The impact of delivery mistakes on credibility evaluations was consistent in both morning and evening news. Finally, viewers with a low level of empathetic concern reported a harsher view of anchors making mistakes than viewers with a high level of empathetic concern. However, experiences of parasocial interactions evaluation suffered the most in the three delivery mistakes condition and saw an increase in the five mistakes condition.
AB - This study explores the impact of television news anchor delivery mistakes on message and source credibility evaluations and whether gender, news context, and empathic concern moderate this effect. The results of an experiment showed that viewers have the highest appraisal of anchors with perfect delivery, and evaluation suffers precipitously with increased mistakes. When evaluating short news clips, viewers were more tolerant of the female news anchor making three delivery mistakes than the male, but both genders suffered equally when the number of mistakes increased to five. The impact of delivery mistakes on credibility evaluations was consistent in both morning and evening news. Finally, viewers with a low level of empathetic concern reported a harsher view of anchors making mistakes than viewers with a high level of empathetic concern. However, experiences of parasocial interactions evaluation suffered the most in the three delivery mistakes condition and saw an increase in the five mistakes condition.
KW - Gender
KW - credibility evaluations
KW - delivery mistakes
KW - television news
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099351556&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17512786.2020.1870531
DO - 10.1080/17512786.2020.1870531
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099351556
VL - 16
SP - 1653
EP - 1672
JO - Journalism Practice
JF - Journalism Practice
SN - 1751-2786
IS - 8
ER -