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Chapter 9

Learning about credibility is always something I have been even more interested in than the other topics, and from having read this chapter I found out that there exists three different types of credibility. The three types are direct, indirect and secondary credibility. One example of displaying direct credibility is if one had expertise within a certain field obtained from having worked and studied within the field for many years, then ones work experience and factual knowledge can be direct credibility if verbally expressed. 
Indirect credibility could be if a leader manages to build a following based off of their actions and what they say, it tells people that this person must be credible since people seem to be following what he is saying and the values that he is preaching. Another example one can establish indirect credibility is by winning arguments, if one wins multiple arguments then people will take that as a sign that you are someone with legit credibility. 
The third and final type of credibility is secondary credibility. An example of this can be if a person establishes fact based claims that have been stated by a known credible source in their argument. So it is stating fact based knowledge that has been said by a person with expertise and great knowledge about a certain topic.


Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2018 at 8:21 AM

    I was also very interested by credibility. The one type that stuck out to me (especially because the election just happened) was indirect credibility. I think that indirect credibility plays a huge role in American politics, because some voters can be persuaded simply by the fact that a candidate has a large following. While I agree with the point you make about how winning arguments can lend credibility, it also needs to be addressed that these arguments are often biased. Someone may attain credibility by winning these biased arguments, but the claims stated may not be entirely correct. I think this is important to point out, especially because the American political landscape is so polarized. Secondary credibility is also a big factor in American politics. Celebrity endorsements have the power to make a huge impact, as seen with Oprah endorsing Barack Obama in 2008 and with Taylor Swift encouraging people to vote in this year's midterm elections. These types of endorsements have a larger amount of power than they seem-- there was a huge spike in voter registration after Taylor Swift made her announcement. All in all, I think the two types of credibility we think the least about- indirect and secondary- have more power than we realize, especially in the political sphere.

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    1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2018 at 8:58 AM

      I agree that one must take caution when deciding if they should support or not support a candidate based of their already gathered support size and/or quality of their support. The majority is surely not always right, and to assume that a crowd's size indicates how good a particular candidate is, is surely an erroneous way to form a logical conclusion. Your mention of celebrity endorsements is relevant in ads too. As the book mentions, often prominent people are seen in milk commercials telling the audience that they "should" drink milk. However, their status or prestige in another field, such as modeling or acting, does little to credit them in the field of nutrition. Still, the impact of their appearance in ads helps to embellish the normative item despite it not having an impact (according to the textbook) on actual milk consumption. It is fascinating then that your real life and very recent example of Taylor Swift seems to have drawn the opposite conclusion: celebrity endorsements are impactful. Maybe this is because social media as a medium seems less entangled with phoniness or layers of contracts between the celebrity and the company. Social media appears at least, to be ran by the person whose name the account represents and therefore is like blogs, or home pages, as opposed to websites; that is, social media appears more transparent and honest, as it is less revised than a commercial.

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  2. Brooke GenzlerNovember 7, 2018 at 8:47 AM

    I agree with you and with Maddy, Credibility I believe is something so powerful and due to the power of having credibility it makes it so much more interesting. There is a lot of depth to credibility and I've never known, let alone thought about the different types of credibility there could be. Therefore, reading this and discovering these 3 types really sparked my interests even more than it already had!! I think that Direct Credibility is most important. For me personally, when I listen to a person speak about their own credibility or experience it 'hits home' with me more.I just think theres something so powerful behind a person talking about something they are "an expert at" or something that they've gone through themselves (makes it more relatable) vs. a secondary party doing it. For example, I give speeches on Drinking and Driving and every-time I give a speech people always tell me "it made me cry"; "this was so powerful"; "I've been through this and your story meant so much to me".. ETC. See my grandpa was killed by a drunk driver and so even if I'm not an expert on drinking and driving, I do have relation to the issue and that allows people to connect, relate, or just have their heart strings tugged on more than if Someone else was talking about my story. It's that Physical presence of not only knowing this person is credible but seeing it. It also makes it a bit more believable in my eyes.

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