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In media and journalism, attribution is the practice of identifying the source of information, quotation, or claim reported in a story.
Attribution is the mechanism by which journalists tell readers where a piece of information came from, allowing audiences to assess credibility and enabling accountability for both the source and the reporter. It can be as explicit as a named quote ("Secretary-General António Guterres said...") or as guarded as "according to a senior Western official familiar with the negotiations."
Most newsrooms operate along a spectrum of attribution conditions, typically negotiated before an interview begins:
These categories are conventions, not contracts, and definitions vary between outlets. The Associated Press, Reuters, and the New York Times each publish stylebooks or standards documents specifying when anonymous sourcing is permissible — typically only when the information is newsworthy, unobtainable otherwise, and the source faces real risk in being named.
Attribution also matters in opinion research and policy analysis: think-tank reports distinguish between cited primary documents, interviews, and the analyst's own inference. In international relations scholarship, footnoting conventions (Chicago, APA) serve the same function.
A distinct but related usage appears in cybersecurity and international law — attribution of a cyberattack or armed action to a particular state — which raises separate evidentiary standards under the International Law Commission's 2001 Draft Articles on State Responsibility. Delegates should not conflate the two senses, though both turn on the same underlying question: who is responsible for the claim?
On background means the information can be published but the source is described only generically; off the record means the information cannot be published at all, though it may guide further reporting.
Anonymous sourcing is generally reserved for cases where the information is newsworthy and unavailable otherwise, and where naming the source would expose them to retaliation, prosecution, or job loss. Major stylebooks require editor approval.
No. Under the Chatham House Rule, participants may freely use the information shared but cannot reveal the identity or affiliation of speakers. Off the record bars publication of the information itself.