University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 12-2012 Consider the Source: Receiver-Assigned Attributions of Credibility to Influential Bloggers Aaron Michael Sachs University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, and the Other Communication Commons Recommended Citation Sachs, Aaron Michael, "Consider the Source: Receiver-Assigned Attributions of Credibility to Influential Bloggers. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1402 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Aaron Michael Sachs entitled "Consider the Source: Receiver-Assigned Attributions of Credibility to Influential Bloggers." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Communication and Information. John W. Haas, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Elizabeth M. Hendrickson, Virgina W. Kupritz Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Aaron Michael Sachs entitled “Consider the source: Receiver-assigned attributions of credibility to influential bloggers.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Communication and Information. ______________________________ John Haas, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: ______________________________ Elizabeth Hendrickson ______________________________ Virginia Kupritz Accepted for the Council ______________________________ Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Consider the source: Receiver-Assigned Attributions of Credibility to Influential Bloggers A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Aaron Michael Sachs December 2012 ii Copyright © 2012 by Aaron M. Sachs All rights reserved. iii Dedication This Master’s thesis is dedicated to my wife, Ashley, for encouraging me to push through the times I doubted myself and finish strong. Your love and your patience have kept me strong. iv Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge my committee: Drs. John Haas, Elizabeth Hendrickson, and Virginia Kupritz—thank you for all of your guidance, your patience, and your grace over the last year and a half. Without each of you, this thesis would not have happened. Dr. Karen Freberg – Thank you for being so encouraging and for helping me along in my pursuit to understand influence and credibility in the social media world. Brian Solis and Beth Kanter – Thank you for your willingness to participate in this research and for being willing to volunteer your blogs as a means for me to collect the data needed for this study. v Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine credibility as it pertains to blogging. While studies have traditionally considered credibility in the context of the material being created, this study examines source credibility in the context of the personality creating the material. Therefore, this study functions primarily as an exploratory study and seeks to present an understanding of source credibility from the perspective of the individuals participating in blogging communities cultivated by influential bloggers. An interview questionnaire was specially developed for this study. Ten participants were selected for this study. Eight of them are females, two of the participants are males. All but one of the participants are Caucasians. The study’s results show that support for attributions of credibility differing based on receiver gender and ethnicity does not exist. However, there was a difference in the types of credible behavior attributed to the bloggers in this study. Responses concerning the male Hispanic blogger indicate credibly behavior oriented toward providing depth of information, whereas responses concerning the White female blogger indicated an inclination toward a community-centric blog focused on providing a broad range of resources. Due to the limited sample size of this study, the ability to make general statements and infer statistical significance is limited, thus relegating this study to being only useful for exploratory purposes. This study’s results, data interpretation, implications, and possibilities for future research are discussed at length. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction and General Information ............................................................................................ 1 Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 2 Credibility ................................................................................................................................... 4 Expertise ................................................................................................................................. 5 Trustworthiness ....................................................................................................................... 6 Source Credibility ................................................................................................................... 7 Blogs ........................................................................................................................................... 9 Social Media Influencers .......................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 13 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 13 Participants ................................................................................................................................ 13 Measures ................................................................................................................................... 14 Procedures ................................................................................................................................. 14 Analysis..................................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 17 vii Domains .................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 4 ....................................................................................................................................... 29 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Research Question 1: Do attributions of credibility differ based on the blogger’s gender? .. 29 Research Question 2: Do attributions of credibility differ based on receiver gender? .......... 30 Research Question 3: Do attributions of credibility differ based on receiver ethnicity? ....... 31 Research Question 4: Do attributions of credibility differ based on the blogger’s ethnicity? 31 Future research and limitations ................................................................................................. 33 Implications............................................................................................................................... 34 Post-hoc analysis ....................................................................................................................... 35 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 35 List of References ......................................................................................................................... 37 Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 45 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 46 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................................