2010 - Public Relations Society of America

Assessments of Bloggers Independence. Table 2 shows participants’ assessments of
blogger credibility to the three categories of bloggers in the study: independent bloggers,
employee bloggers, and paid bloggers. Three separate factor analyses based on blogger
affiliation, and these accounted for 71.5%, 68.2% and 73.9% of the variance. Although the 10-
item index showed high levels of reliability, the a 5-item shortened scale that emerged from the
first factor (incorporating convincing, valuable, trustworthy and accurate) proved to a shorter,
more efficient and accounted for half of the total variance. Thus the items in the weaker factor
(composed of believable, reputable, persuasive, useful and truthful) were dropped from the
analysis. Regardless of which measure is considered, Table 2 suggests that participants view
independent bloggers more favorably than either employee bloggers or paid bloggers.
Table 2
Effects of Perceived Affiliations between Marketers and Bloggers
Independent Employee Paid a fee
M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
Credibility Index 4.40 (1.030) 3.80 (1.033) 3.23 (1.109)
Credible 4.53 (1.276) 3.57 (1.305) 3.02 (1.286)
Convincing 4.39 (1.218) 3.71 (1.193) 3.18 (1.324)
Valuable 4.52 (1.265) 4.07 (1.276) 3.45 (1.366)
Trustworthy 4.29 (1.161) 3.75 (1.184) 3.15 (1.214)
Accurate 4.32 (1.115) 3.95 (1.173) 3.40 (1.250)
Eigenvalues 5.09 4.89 5.75
Variance explained 50.2% 48.9% 57.%
α= .906 .896 .912
Other Items Excluded from Analysis
Believable 4.21 (1.223) 3.91 (1.159) 3.54 (1.402)
Reputable 4.09 (1.181) 3.97 (1.208) 3.51 (1.408)
Persuasive 4.18 (1.315) 3.84 (1.261) 3.50 (1.386)
Useful 4.34 (1.235) 3.95 (1.176) 3.67 (1.345)
Truthful 4.31 (1.289) 3.87 (1.315) 3.46 (1.489)
All-Positive v. Balanced Language. Table 3 summarizes participants’ assessments of
blogs based on the use of all-positive versus balanced language using the same 10-item scale.
Similar to the analysis for blogger affiliation, factor analysis revealed two parallel dimensions,
which together accounted for 78.1% and 77.6% of the variance, respectively. Again, the first
factor (credible, convincing, valuable, trustworthy and accurate) again accounted for an
overwhelming proportion of the total variance and the other items were dropped for analysis
purposes.
Table 3
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