Believe it or not? Comparing Experience of Rumor on Traditional and New Media

Abstract

Believe it or not? Comparing Experience of Rumor on Traditional and New Media Shujun Jiang Abstract As rumor and false information have come to occupy more media space and time, this study looks into the impact of people's experience of rumor on five types of media including newspaper, TV, radio, news websites and social media, and how that experience affects the credibility of each media. A survey was conducted towards media users (n=189) in the United Arab Emirates, where it has the highest penetration of digital devices across GCC countries. The findings show that people experience rumors the most from social media and the least from newspapers, while people perceive the credibility of newspaper to be the highest and social media the lowest. The experience of rumor made a significant difference on the credibility of TV and newspaper, with those who claim to have no experience of rumor perceive higher credibility and those who had rumors perceive lower media credibility. However, rumor had no impact on the credibility of social media, news websites, and radio. These findings are discussed along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/rjmc.v5n2a2