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Article Excerpt
Without any doubt, television plays a dominant role in modern life. In the United States the average TV consumption is more than 4 hours per day (TV-Turnoff Network, 2004). In Switzerland, where this study was conducted, the TV consumption is on average 147 minutes per day (Schweizer Bundesamt for Statistik, 2006). This shows the meaning of television nowadays: People spend a large part of the day in front of the TV and are thereby confronted with a plethora of pictures and information. Over the last decades, TV has doubtless become a major popular leisure activity. It seems to be true what an advertisement for a TV set proclaims: "You work hard and at the end of a long day you want to relax and enjoy your favourite television programs" (Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., n.d., [paragraph] 1).
One reason for watching television might be entertainment, but TV is also the medium that provides news for a majority of people (e.g., Clausen, 2004). In the field of newscasts, the broadcasting industry constantly competes for ratings by changing formats and set designs. As the anchor is the visible part of a broadcast, newscasters play an important role within this process. Henry Cassirer who had been working for CBS radio news and was part of the television news staff phrased it as follows: "The personality of the newscaster [is] very important.... He has to sell himself and the show" (Conway, 2004, p. 286). Since all stations report similar stories, one of their main objectives is credibility. As the perceived credibility depends among other factors on the person delivering a message (e.g., Engstrom, 1994; Metzger, Flanagin, Eyal, Lemus, & McCann, 2003; O'Keefe, 1990), the anchor's credibility is essential. If a newscaster is not perceived as credible, the viewers probably change the channel and watch other channels' news. Thereby, the question is about the type of person which would work best and would be most credible. Hence, this article focuses on characteristics that have an impact on the perception of newscasters. As it has been discussed controversially whether men or women are better anchors and taking into account that a gender switch has taken place during the last 30 years (Creedon, 1989), the main focus of this study lies on the effect of the newscasters' gender on credibility. As previous studies showed that the age of newscasters is a relevant factor (Brownlow & Zebrowitz, 1990; Strickland, 1980; Wood, 1979), the current researchers also analyzed how anchors' age affects perceived credibility. As Kiousis (2001) points out that previous studies did not make it clear whether the subjects evaluated the message, the newscaster, or both, emphasis was put not only on the credibility of newscasters but also on the credibility of newscasts. Accordingly the credibility attributed to the message as well as to the speaker were analyzed separately.
As most of the existing research has been done in the United States, a further purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are cross-cultural differences concerning the perception of male and female newscasters.
Conceptual Background
Television News and Gender
Nowadays, women are frequently engaged as newscasters. This used to be different; for a long time, the majority of anchors were men. Thirty years ago, only 13% of U.S. news reporters were women (Stone as cited in Engstrom & Ferri, 2001). Today, about half of newscasters are female. This applies not only to the United States. The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), an extensive global research of gender in news media that was conducted in 70 countries, came to the conclusion that 53% of all presenters are women (Gallagher, 2005). Thus, women have found their way into the newscast. Creedon (1989) speaks about a gender switch that started in the mid-'70s. This gender switch also took place in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria where today even more female anchors are employed than in the United States. Sixty-four of the Swiss (Schweizerische Radio-und Fernsehgesellschaft [SRG], 2006), 66% of the Austrian (Osterreichischer Rundfunk, 2006), and 84% of the German newscasters (Becker & Becker, 2001) are female. In Germany, the first female newscaster went on the air in 1971. As a reaction, a lot of people were embarrassed. The popular German newscaster Karl-Heinz Kopcke for example said that he could not imagine that a woman can read the news without breaking out in tears (Helwerth, 2002). Not only men considered women inappropriate as newscasters; Shirley Wershba, working at CBS radio news at that time phrased her feelings as follows: "Would I believe a woman telling me the news? No, of course not, until it became a familiar thing. Once it becomes familiar it's quite acceptable" (Conway, 2004, p. 286).
Facing the data mentioned above, one would think that nowadays men and women are equally treated in the field of newscasts. This is, however, still not the case. Women anchors perceive more barriers (Ferri, 1988). Ferri and Keller (1986) found that there are gender-related factors such as an overemphasis on physical appearance that serve as hindrances in the professional development of female newscasters. In line with these findings, Engstrom and Ferri (2001) also found that the career of women as newscasters depends on their physical appearance, while the career of male news presenters depends on professional networks. Within this discussion, age seems to be a relevant factor: For female anchors, a youthful appearance seems to be more highly valued than professional experience: Up to the age of 34, women are in the majority as newscasters, but by the age of 50, worldwide only 7% of presenters are female (Gallagher, 2005).
News presenters may be women, but the news of the day still largely comes from a male perspective since most of the reporters of the stories are men (Cann & Mohr, 2001; Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [FAIR], 2001; Gallagher, 2005; Helwerth, 2002; Liebler & Smith, 1997; Lumby, 1994). Furthermore, a study by Sichtermann and Kaiser (2005) shows that 88% of prestigious news is presented by men. There also are only a limited number of women in top television management (e.g., Gallagher, 2005; Sichtermann & Kaiser, 2005).
A further indication that male and female newscasters are still not equally treated is the fact that a majority of chief editors still prefer male newscasters. They assume that viewers believe male newscasters to be more credible and thus better in their job (Helwerth, 2002; Parker, 2004). This study analyzes whether viewers agree with this assumption.
Credibility Research
In existing credibility research, the three focuses of source credibility, message credibility, and media credibility have been identified (Metzger et al., 2003). In this study the impact of newscasters' gender on source credibility and message credibility has been evaluated. Therefore perceived source credibility and message credibility have to be assessed. Carl Hovland and his colleagues can be seen as pioneers in the field of credibility and persuasion. In the early days of the development of communication research and in line with most American researchers, their main concern was to gather useful data about the effectiveness of campaigns and various methods of communication. They set up carefully controlled experiments to test the effects of different characteristics of the channel through which information is communicated. Their findings state that people are more likely to believe a fact when the source presents itself as being credible (Hovland, Janis, & Kelly, 1953). According to Hovland et al. the credibility of a certain source is determined by its expertness and...
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