The Visual Journalism Credibility Scale: Including Pathos for Visual Journalists in the Convergent Media Era

Abstract

Credibility is an ancient, well-studied, complicated construct. Most credibility measurements consider messenger (ethos) and/or message (logos). Aristotle’s definition includes pathos—the speaker’s emotion, important in visual journalism but rarely applied to visual mediums. This experimental research seeks to fill that gap. It analyzed 45 variables representing ethos, logos, and pathos. High correlations among Aristotle’s three concepts suggest the need to consider each when measuring visual journalism credibility. Factor analysis yielded a three-pronged credibility measure for visual journalists, with 15 variables representing the three concepts. The scale can be used with studies of visual reporting, adding the nuance of pathos-derived credibility.