ANONYMOUS ATTRIBUTION DURING 2 PERIODS OF MILITARY CONFLICT - USING LOGISTIC-REGRESSION TO STUDY VEILED SOURCES IN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

In this study, nearly 9,000 news paragraphs concerning the military co nflicts in Bosnia and Somalia were coded for a series of variables. Th e use of anonymous attribution varied significantly in Associated Pres s, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post content. In addition to prov iding valuable information about the use of sources, the study also co ntributes to communication methodology by using logistic regression an alysis to test the effects of four predictor variables on an ordinal-l evel response variable. Scholars who examine source attribution in Wes tern newspapers are encouraged to use the method in future analyses.