This study employs an experimental design to test the effects of branding,presence of opinion, and gender on news credibility. A history of credibility theory in social science research is explored in order to contextualize investigation of truth and objectivity in the contemporary fragmented news landscapes. The goal is to contribute to the academic methodologies employed in the exploration of credibility in news as well as make practical suggestions to news makers. Results of the empirical methods in this thesis showed that belief in the news organization from a pretest was positively correlated with the credibility ratings of the individual story conditions but previously held beliefs about story topic were not. Neutral stories were rated higher in terms of credibility than those with opinion statements regardless of brand or belief in the news institution. A scale for personal acceptance of opinion in news is proposed to provide credibility theorists a way to unobtrusively measure predilection for opinion news. While no differences in gender were found using the newly-proposed scale, an individual’s propensity to trust was positively correlated with acceptance of opinion in news. Audience specialization in news should lead to specialized studies of credibility, particularly the roles of gender information processing in relation to objectivity, opinion, and credibility. / text

News credibility studies have been around since radio and television began competing with the newspaper industry for consumers' attention. However, at this time, the news industry is experiencing a shift in medium as the Internet is quickly becoming the predominant source by which many get their news. Due to the free and independent nature of the Internet and the rise of blogging as a source by which people get news and information, audience perception of what constitutes a credible source needed to be examined. This study took the dimensions of news credibility that have been set in previous studies and compared them against an individual's news blog use to see if there was any change in what was important in measuring credibility. Through these comparisons, the measure that was used in previous studies did not seem deep enough and did not produce the expected outcome. Barely touching on each dimension, this study calls for individual studies on each dimension that would provide a better look at how credibility is perceived by news blog users.

Because of the advent of the Internet, traditional journalism is changing. Advanced technology includes the tools for everyone to publish their thoughts, feelings, photos, and videos, allowing individuals to be citizen journalists. This experimental-design study was aimed at discovering the influence of biographies in people's judgments of the credibility and professionalism of news articles. The study involved four treatments 1: professional journalist feature article with professional journalist biography; 2: citizen journalist feature article with professional journalist biography; 3: citizen journalist feature article with citizen journalist biography; and 4: professional journalist feature article with citizen journalist biography. These treatments were used to determine how the 198 study participants judged the work and biography of a traditional journalist compared to the work and biography of a citizen journalist. Study data was acquired through an online survey. A credibility scale and a professionalism scale were used to determine that, based on the articles used in the study, news consumers do not see professional journalists as more credible than citizen journalists, although news consumers do see traditional journalists' content as more professional.

Product placement, also referred to as stealth advertising, raises important questions when it comes to television because a far larger audience views television than movies. Product placement in newscasts is even more controversial. Television news is expected to be free of persuasive attempts and provide citizens with basic information that is of public importance. Yet, product placement blurs the line between journalism and commercial promotion, thus destroying the integrity of the news. Product placement in newscasts raises ethical questions about the effect it has on viewers, provided that they do not realize that they are presented with commercials, framed as news story. Yet, this paper argues that, since viewers focus on the actual news and do not elaborate consciously on the advertised product or brand, product placement in newscasts has little effect on their brand recall. To support this hypothesis the paper compares brand recall from product placement and commercials. Results revealed that this hypothesis is partially true. Important discovery from this study is the fact that product placement directly affects news credibility.

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abstract: The “filter bubble” has been a heated discussion topic since several years ago. In addition to possible algorithmic contribution to this phenomenon, people’s selective exposure tendency may be another primary cause of the “filter bubble” on social media. Prior research indicates that, under the influence of selective exposure tendency, people tend to perceive pro-attitudinal news as more credible than counter-attitudinal news, with strong partisans more likely to be affected. The proposed thesis seeks to examine whether the perceived credibility of a news source and story on social media is influenced by selective exposure and strength of partisanship. Through an experimental study via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, 468 participants chose or were assigned to read an ostensible news story from a social media feed with the news source and ideological slant varied between participants. The results showed that people reported higher perceived source and story credibility when the source and stories were pro-attitudinal (consistent with their political ideology) as opposed to counter-attitudinal, regardless of participants’ age, race, perceived credibility of news from social media, in general, and strength of partisanship. However, contrary to the hypotheses, selective exposure behavior (i.e., choosing a preferred news source before reading a news story) did not affect credibility perceptions when participants read counter-attitudinal news from a pro-attitudinal source. Last, strength of partisanship did not moderate the influence of selective exposure on credibility perceptions. In sum, this study suggests that although selective exposure tendency may affect people’s credibility perceptions and contribute to “filter bubbles,” the impact of selective exposure behavior may be overestimated in terms of perceived source and story credibility of news on social media. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Public Administration 2020

2009年底，台灣蘋果日報推出【動新聞】，因為其以3D動畫的方式詳述性侵、暴力等社會新聞，引發輿論批評，而且國家傳播通訊委員（NCC）也明白指出，電視新聞使用3D動畫非真實呈現，換句話說，民間與官方都一致認為電視新聞使用3D動畫恐怕有損新聞的專業性。有鑑於新聞媒體最重要的價值就是「新聞可信度」，因此，本研究遂將一般閱聽眾視研究對象，採取實驗法進行社會新聞使用3D動畫有無，進行新聞可信度差異研究。 　　受測者總計52人，依社會新聞次分類分別為突發新聞、犯罪新聞，又依3D動畫有無，共計分為4組，採t檢定檢驗發現，3D動畫有無不會影響新聞可信度，而且突發、犯罪新聞的新聞可信度也無差異；又採二因子變異數檢定發現，新聞可信度不會因為「社會新聞次類型」、「3D動畫有無」或其交互作用產生差異。此外，二因子變異數的檢驗發現，閱聽眾對於3D動畫的既有態度不會影響新聞可信度評估，最後，人口學變項也不會影響新聞可信度評估。 　　即便本研究初步證實社會新聞使用3D動畫有無，在新聞可信度上並無差異，但相較於沒有使用3D動畫的，有使用的反而獲得較高的平均數。 / At the end of 2009, Taiwan Next Media introduced Animated News, which induced considerable public criticism due to its use of 3D animation to portray social news containing acts of sexual assault and violence. Furthermore, the National Communications Commission (NCC) has clearly pointed out that the 3D animation used in TV news is not a real representation. In other words, both the public and government believe to a large degree that 3D animation used in TV news may harm journalistic professionalism. In view of the fact that the most important value of news media is "news credibility," the study employs experimental methods to determine the difference in the credibility of news in the eyes of research subjects consisting of ordinary viewers that results when social news adopts 3D animation. The total of 52 respondents were divided into four groups viewing news in the two subcategories of breaking news and crime news either with or without 3D animation. Inspection employing the t-test revealed that the presence of 3D animation does not affect the credibility of news, and no effect was observed in the case of either breaking news or crime news. Two-way ANOVA further discovered that the credibility of news does not vary due to "social news subcategory," "presence of 3D animation," or their interaction. In addition, two-way ANOVA also revealed that viewers' existing attitude toward 3D animation does not influence their assessment of the credibility of news. This study not only found that the use of 3D animation and social news does not affect the credibility of the news, but also discovered that compared with news not employing 3D animation, news using animation in fact received relatively high average credibility scores.

Consuming news and defining its credibility play a large role in our everyday lives. The digitalisation of news has enabled new interactions with the medium, that have yet to be analysed in their impact on credibility. This study aims to investigate the effects interactivity has on perceived credibility and how user interactions can be applied to the digital news medium. The analysis is done through a user -centric approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods based on design thinking. The methods used include a digital questionnaire, user interviews and prototype testing. Using these methods we find that no strong association can be made between the frequency of use of specific digital interactions such as sharing, liking and commenting and perceived credibility. While most users see an added benefit in having more interactive elements on a digital platform, it cannot be concluded that overall higher levels of interactivity lead to higher credibility. However, if interactivity is used to enable people to voice their opinion an increase in trust can be built, which subsequently increases credibility. / Att konsumera nyheter och definiera deras trovärdighet spelar en stor roll i vår vardag. Digitaliseringen av nyheter har möjliggjort nya interaktioner med mediet, som ännu inte har analyserats i deras inverkan på trovärdigheten. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka effekterna som interaktivitet har på upplevd trovärdighet och hur användarinteraktioner kan tillämpas på det digitala nyhetsmediet. Analysen görs genom en användarcentrerad metod med både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder baserade på designtänkande. Metoderna som används inkluderar ett digitalt frågeformulär, användarintervjuer och prototyptestning. Med hjälp av dessa metoder finner vi att ingen stark koppling kan göras mellan frekvensen för användning av specifika digitala interaktioner som att dela, gilla och kommentera och upplevd trovärdighet. Medan de flesta användare ser en extra fördel med att ha fler interaktiva element på en digital plattform, kan man inte dra slutsatsen att övergripande högre nivåer av interaktivitet leder till högre trovärdighet. Men om interaktivitet används för att göra det möjligt för människor att uttala sig, kan man öka förtroendet, vilket därefter ökar trovärdigheten.

In the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend of Instagram as a news source emerged in the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 (Reuters, 2020). Instagram’s visual factor has made accessing news more feasible and convenient through a curated feed. Consequently, news producers are migrating to social media platforms, including Instagram to serve news consumption needs. However, journalism on social media has been criticized for its lack of journalistic legitimacy where media trust is challenged by the sensationalism of news to drive engagement metrics. Moreover, the COVID-19 infodemic (WHO, 2020) has escalated the concern of news credibility due to a circulation of misinformation regarding the pandemic and overwhelming citizens. Hence, the objective of this study is to analyze how a news outlet on Instagram maintains journalistic legitimacy and how Instagram users navigate news through information abundance in finding credible and trustworthy news.  The analysis of this study takes into account an Indonesian news outlet on Instagram called Narasi Newsroom, by interviewing a representative from the news producer, a content analysis of their news content, and interviewing Indonesian Instagram users. The empirical findings illustrate how Narasi Newsroom can revive journalistic legitimacy through an innovative approach without diminishing journalism quality on Instagram. With its principle of educating the audience to understand the news beyond factual statements, Narasi Newsroom’s strategy of riding the wave to serve audience needs upholds journalism values through critical thinking and credible sources. By conducting the study through updating the encoding/decoding model (Hall, 1973; 2009), it was found that the social media logic (Dijck & Poell, 2013) can balance journalism practice on Instagram as well as practices critical thinking for news consumers in finding trustworthy news. In light of the post-truth era, media trust and news credibility may be challenged, however, they are not lost when journalism on social media takes accountability to serve news consumers’ needs. Consequently, it takes both the news producers and consumers to take a critical stance to preserve trust in the news.

This study was an investigation of the effect of political advertising on readers’ perceived bias and credibility of an online news article based on participants’ political leanings. Media priming and the hostile media effect were the theoretical underpinnings. Participants were asked to read an unbiased news article placed alongside 3 advertisements. Participants were put into 1 of 3 conditions — right-leaning advertisements, left-leaning advertisements, or neutral advertisements. They then answered questions about the perceived bias and credibility of the article and their own political affiliation. The researchers hypothesized that left-leaning individuals would perceive the article with right-leaning advertisements as biased and less credible and the opposite would be true of right-leaning individuals. Results were not consistent with hypotheses but trended in the expected directions.