Com 2300 Term Paper

Jessica Phillips

COM 2300

Professor Bodo

Term Paper

        Throughout the world, individuals rely on various mediums in order to receive news information. These primary mediums include the Internet, newspapers, and television. Credibility is varied among different mediums sought by audiences, such as news and entertainment. Each medium has primary characteristics in which contribute to the credibility of information.

        According to Webster’s New Collegiate dictionary, to be credible is “reasonable grounds for being believed”. Although the concept is fairly straightforward in this sense, measuring credibility is not as easy. Empirical research on credibility began in the 20th century with studies that considered credibility to be an important characteristic of persuasive information. The ways in which messages are presented may have a significant influence on credibility. Infante (1980) described credibility measurements by three different dimensions: trustworthiness, expertise, and dynamism (pg. 21). Regardless of the ways in which a medium is considered credible, the true dictation is left to the audience.

        The number of adults using the Internet to find and read news online is consistently on the rise. One of the issues that has emerged is the credibility of information technologies and media news delivery systems. Tseng and Fogg (1999) described online news credibility as four types: presumed (assumptions), reputed (third-party reports), surface (primitive inspection), and experienced (first-hand experience).  Because of privacy issues, content accuracy, and other related concerns, some observes have predicted that trouble for online news is just getting started. According to Johnson and Kaye (1998), “one of the basic characteristics of the Internet is the potentially free access to everybody to upload information without much scrutiny, this could affect the credibility of the medium as a source of information” (pg. 332). With almost everyone having the proper tools necessary to post an article on the Internet, it is nearly impossible to regulate every post. Internet sites do not go through rigorous efforts like newspapers and television in order to verify information before it is presented to the public. The lack of editorial and gatekeeping rules can be cited as the central problem to this issue. Although most websites have the tendency to be poorly patrolled, some reputable and popular news sources are praised for their accuracy and reliability.

        Branded online news sources such as CNN.com and NBC.com have become credible sources for information based on the name and related television news network. Another example of this would be Time magazine, and its Internet counterpart, Time Online. Branding can lead to higher levels of credibility and trustworthiness. With branded news online sources comes the option of interactivity.  Newhagen (1997) studied the perception of interactivity with individuals and computer networks. While interactivity ratings do not predict credibility, respondents who had emailed NBC found computer communications to be more credible than those who did not. Online news has the tendency to strongly correlate to information provided through newspapers.

        Newspapers are the second type of medium in which people gather news information from. In some studies of news credibility, audiences viewed newspapers as less accurate and more biased (Howard, 1978). Print newspapers are regarded as a serious news medium because, after all, they are committed to “news” because of the name. Newspaper credibility is based on balance, honesty, and currency. In order for newspapers to offer credibility, they “must be perceived to be balances in story telling, complete in providing information, objective and fair, accurate and unbiased” (Abdulla 2002, pg. 19) Having a visual aspect to news information can also impact the credibility of a medium.

        Television has the ability to engaged and involve viewers without requiring ample amounts of television. The ease of television seems to translate to higher favorability and credibility ratings overall. Ideas like ‘seeing is believing’ when it comes to news is apparently quite powerful, and is the most frequently cited reason for television’s superior credibility among consumers. The economics of television have also been credited as an explanation for its greater believability over newspapers. Because television is responsible for larger and more diverse audiences and advertisers than newspapers, it cannot afford to be biased in its news coverage (Metzger 2003, pg.308). Although the physical evidence of news reports can be made available, news reporters can sometimes stretch the truth on stories they are covering.

        A popular example of stretching the truth is when NBC News anchorman, Brian Williams, openly admitted to exaggerating a situation about coming under fire in a U.S Army helicopter during the Iraq war in 2003. Williams reported the story to not only a Nightly News broadcast, but also over a series of public appearances and talk shows for years. Williams viewed this as only a simple mistake in recalling the events that happened over 12 years ago. He was suspended from NBC for six months and “brought one of the most credible news television sources to its knees” according to VanityFair.com.  

        The dimensions of timeliness, currency, and up-to-date information remain important aspects of credibility with all three mediums. Online news has the advantage of functioning as current, timely, and up-to-date all within a matter of seconds. Televisions primary focus is to be current, while also reaching the factors of up-to-date and timely. Newspaper has a balance of currency and up-to-date but falls short on timely information. Printed news may take a while to be published and by the time an audience is reached, the news can seem outdated.  Newhagen and Nass (1989) demonstrated that “when assessing the credibility of various media, people use different judgment criteria: people evaluate the credibility of television news by the newscasters who present the news, whereas they evaluate the credibility of the newspapers as an institution” (pg. 279). How a story is told can be as important as the information it conveys.