The Effects of Attribution of VNRs and Risk on News Viewers' Assessments of Credibility

Abstract

The executive branch practice of issuing video news releases (VNRs) without attributing them to government agencies has been sharply criticized by the Government Accounting Office. However, the effects of attribution on VNR viewers are not understood. This article reports the results of an experiment testing the relative credibility of two different government agencies by viewers of a VNR attributed to an agency, compared with viewers who saw the VNR without attribution. This article also examines how one's predisposition toward a domain-specific risk identified in the VNR influenced the perceived credibility of the message. Results indicate that partisanship impacted perceptions of credibility of the VNRs.

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