Journalism Credibility in the Digital Age – Examining Shifts in Paradigms

Abstract

This paper set out to explore the dominant measures of media credibility that have stood as a hallmark since the 1930s. By investigating their origins, the paper appends an old, and yet overlooked measure - “the local context”, to the already existing ones: source, message, medium, and web credibility. The paper highlights historical antecedents that support the claim and the argument that credibility, and especially in the digital age requires an extended understanding that includes the context or environment. By so doing, we would be able to explain why people choose to believe in inaccurate or false information. Predominantly, the paper interrogates why individuals in echo-chambers believe that a particular source, message, medium, or web is credible regardless of the content of the message.