Abstract
Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the online information credibility on trust relationships. A 2 (newspaper news and online press release) 2 (negative news and positive news) experiment was designed with 184 participants to implement the test. The results showed that media source type and news content exerted significant effects on media credibility and trust relationships with organizations. The subjects perceived as more credible newspaper news stories than those posted in online press releases. Specifically, the news audience is more likely to believe traditional journalistic sources when faced with negative reports about organizations. Moreover, a significant correlation between media credibility and trust relationships suggests that media source credibility has an influence on the trust relationships. Public relations practitioners may be advised to invest more time in placing objective and credible information in key traditional media first in order to initiate, nurture, and maintain trust relationships with a strategic public. Designers and promoters of websites would also do well to reinforce the credibility of their medium, perhaps by incorporating material from other trusted sources.
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