Most of the research conducted to measure credibility has focused on comparing one type of media with another, i.e., newspaper vs. television. Other research has looked into how different target audiences of corporate or company newspapers perceive the credibility of the publication. To date, there has been little research into how the target audiences perceive the credibility of a military installation's command newspaper. This study examined how active-duty Army personnel perceived the credibility of an Army installation's command newspaper; specifically, The Paraglide from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.The study employed the model developed by Meyer (1988) to measure perceptions of credibility. The study also used a model developed by Surlin and Walker (1975) to measure the respondent's self-agreement with how three hypothetical "bad news" stories should and would be covered by the command newspaper. The independent variables for the study were: civilian education level, years of service in the military, and job level/rank. The data was collected using a survey questionnaire distributed to Army units assigned to the 82nd Infantry Division (Airborne). Respondents were directed by their supervisors to complete the survey.The results indicated education level was not significant in perceptions of credibility; years of service was significant in perceptions of credibility; and job level/rank was significant in perceptions of credibility. Additionally, education level, years of service, and job level/rank were all significant in the respondent's self-agreement with how controversial issues were covered, but the significance appeared to be issue dependent. / Department of Journalism
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/186365 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Farlow, David C. |
| Contributors | Sharpe, Melvin L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 82 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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