In recent years the concept of framing has been established as a central approach in political communication for investigating the influence of the media on individuals such as voters. Strategies of framing are used to develop a conceptualization of a specific issue by promoting a particular interpretation of it. The effects of framing are limited by several individual and contextual factors. In our investigation we pick up these limits of framing and focus on the latter, the credibility of the frame’s source.
We present findings from an online experiment conducted in the surroundings of the German Federal Election 2013: A more credible media source strengthens the framing effect while a less credible source has no influence on the framing effect, indicating that the source credibility serves as a moderator. Thus, the source credibility in our investigation presents itself as a basic prerequisite for effective framing.
