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Communication Research
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The Blame Game

Elements of Causal Attribution and its Impact on Siding with Agents in the News

Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick

The Ohio State University

Laramie D. Taylor

University of California, Davis

"Blame game" coverage relates to news about actors in the public arena as they try to deflect, deflate, or diffuse blame for negative events so that the public does not view them as the cause of harm. The current research looks at formal differences in news presentations and how they affect causal attributions of news readers and subsequent support for agents in the news and policy preferences. In Study 1, verb voice was manipulated in four news stories with one key agent; when active voice was used to describe actions relative to an event, that agent was more seen as the cause of that event than when passive voice was used. Study 2 demonstrated, based on three news reports about conflicts, that facets of causal attributions—perceived control and intention— affect perceptions of agents' traits, as well as assent and support for the changes targeted by the news agents.

Key Words: attribution • causation • verb voice • news • blame

This version was published on December 1, 2008

Communication Research, Vol. 35, No. 6, 723-744 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650208324266
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