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ERIC Number: ED099907
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1973-Apr
Pages: 14
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Effect of Camera Treatment on Political Speakers' Credibility: Network Television Coverage of the Speeches of Ted Kennedy and George McGovern to the 1972 Democratic National Convention.
McCain, Thomas A.; Rowand, Paul
Two questions were the focus of this study. Do television network presentations of the same event significantly vary in their use of nonverbal production techniques? If they do differ, what effect do these differences have on receiver's attitude toward the object of that network coverage? Phase 1 of the study examined the speeches of Ted Kennedy and George McGovern at the 1972 Democratic National Convention as broadcast by CBS, NBC, and ABC. The video portions of the speeches were analyzed along four variables which had been previously found to affect receiver judgments: length of shot, image size, camera angle, and severity of camera angle. The differences found in camera treatment resulted in the hypothesis that different camera treatments would result in differential attitudes of receivers toward a televised political source. Phase 2 utilized 12 semantic differential scales for measuring four dimensions of source credibility. These were administered to approximately 240 college students enrolled in sections of an introductory communication course. Only one significant difference was found: Kennedy's extroversion was significantly lower for subjects who viewed the speech on CBS than for those who watched the same speech on NBC. Character and competence dimensions both collapsed. (HOD)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association (Montreal, Quebec, April 1973)