Media Credibility Research Articles

Media Exposure and Media Credibility Influencing Public Intentions for Influenza Vaccination.

Due to the low rate of influenza vaccination in China, this study explores the factors influencing the Chinese public’s influenza vaccination intentions. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study builds a theoretical model to examine the factors influencing Chinese public intentions toward influenza vaccination. We define media exposure and media credibility as external variables and the perceived characteristics of influenza vaccines as intermediate variables in the proposed model. A total of 597 valid questionnaires were collected online in this study. Combined with structural equation modeling (SEM), SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 17.0 were used to conduct empirical research, supporting the proposed research hypotheses. The results show that media exposure and media credibility have no direct effects on the audience’s intention to take the influenza vaccine. However, media exposure positively influences media credibility, influencing vaccination intentions through perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). Furthermore, PU and PEOU significantly positively influence behavioral intentions, and PEOU significantly affects PU. This paper has proven that media with better credibility gained more trust from the audience, indicating a new perspective for the promotion of influenza vaccination. This study suggests releasing influenza-related information via media with great credibility, further improving public acceptance of becoming vaccinated.

Credibility and Involvement of Social Media in Education-Recommendations for Mitigating the Negative Effects of the Pandemic among High School Students.

In the context of considerations on the potential attenuation of the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic with the use of credible social media in online education during a pandemic, the subject of our own research was the fulfillment of two goals. The main research goals were to identify, categorize, and evaluate the possibilities of using social media in online education during the pandemic from the perspective of selected teachers and students from secondary schools in Slovakia. The research methods of the first phase (qualitative) of the research involved brainstorming among nine secondary school teachers. The second research phase (quantitative) used a questionnaire, which was completed by 102 high school students from all over Slovakia. The collection of both quantitative and qualitative data was used in this research. The research results revealed the most representative opinions of teachers on the current and real possibilities of engaging credible social media in online education and the views of high school students on their desired use and involvement of social media in online education. The intersection of the two findings presents a picture of the possibilities of using credible social media in online education, which can help maintain students’ interest in online education during a pandemic. Based on these findings, it can be stated that the opinions identified in the research group of teachers correspond to a large extent with the desired use of social media in education from the perspective of students. In addition, however, students would welcome more opportunities to use and engage social media in today’s online education. The result of this research is an analysis of social media patterns applied to online education, which are of greater interest to students and could act as elements for reducing the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., six forms of online education and 24 educational activities that could contribute, inter alia, to mitigating the different negative effects of the pandemic among youth generation. The findings also benefit from the presentation of many specific options and recommendations for the use of social media in online education during a pandemic.

Public Perception of Gun Violence-related Headline Accuracy and the Credibility of Media Sources

ABSTRACT The present study sought to determine the extent to which the message or messenger is more important for news media portrayal of gun violence prevention. Exploratory analyses also examined factors related to Fox News and MSNBC credibility. Participants (N = 3,500) were US adults matched to the 2010 US Census on several demographic variables. Two mock headlines were presented: “Gun violence is result of mental health problems” and “Storing firearms in a safe can help prevent suicides.” Headlines were reported to be from either Fox News or MSNBC. Participants then rated accuracy of the headline and credibility of the news source. Headline content did not predict perceived accuracy of the headline. Perceived credibility of the messenger was associated with perceived accuracy for both mock headlines. Exploratory analyses indicated several demographic factors related to Fox News and MSNBC credibility. Regardless of the content of a headline, the degree to which participants perceived it as accurate was associated with how credible they believed the source to be. These findings highlight the importance of credible media portrayal of accurate information on gun violence prevention.

Trust, Media Credibility, Social Ties, and the Intention to Share towards Information Verification in an Age of Fake News.

Social media is now the primary form of communication between internet users and has soared in popularity, which has directly impacted the spread of the phenomenon of fake news. Fake news is not only a widespread phenomenon; it is also problematic and dangerous for society. The aim of this study is to understand the phenomenon of fake news better. The study utilised a structural modelling equation in order to identify how Polish society perceives the problem of fake news and assess the extent to which it trusts content that is published on the internet. The key goal was to determine what factors have the most significant influence on the verification of information being viewed on the internet. By deploying the partial least squares method of validation, SmartPLS3 software was used to process the survey results. The strongest positive effect on information verification behaviour was found to be fake news awareness, which was followed by the intention to share information. The research did not consider any clear connections that may exist between the nature of fake news and its recipient; however, much of the fake news that appears on the internet is political in nature. The study can be used by news reporting companies and provides preliminary information for developers responsible for running social media sites as well as users who want to combat and limit the spread of fake news online. This study expands on the available literature related to fake news by identifying the effects on information verification behaviour of fake news awareness and the intention to share data.

The Innovative Development Path of Financial Media Based on Mobile Edge Computing Technology from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization

Rural Revitalization is a systematic and complex strategic project that must keep up with the times while also taking into account the times’ characteristics and social development. The media should be at the forefront of rural revitalization efforts. The interaction of various “forces” is required for the successful implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. The county-level financial media center, as a “force of the media,” will encourage mainstream media to overcome their own development challenges, become an important mainstream public opinion publicity platform, and aid in the realization of the great cause of rural revitalization. For rural comprehensive revitalization, big data provides new means and tools. It is not only a powerful support for rural comprehensive revitalization, but also an important means of realizing the integrated development of the digital economy and rural revitalization, as well as improving the quality and level of rural revitalization. We need to accelerate the realization of agricultural and rural modernization to implement the rural revitalization strategy, and the construction of smart countryside is an important embodiment of agricultural and rural modernization. Mobile edge computing technology has become ingrained in many aspects of social production and daily life. With the power of MEC, urban radio and television must accelerate the pace of multiscreen and multifrequency interaction, as well as online and offline integration; create an all-media instant communication and interactive platform; make new media products suitable for rural audiences; realize integrated development of urban and rural areas; and improve the influence and credibility of new media on agricultural communication. From the perspective of rural revitalization, this paper will investigate the development path of financial media under the influence of data mining (DM) and mobile edge computing technology.

Mass media utilization to promote public behavior change during COVID-19 situation: A population survey of Dhaka city

A huge amount of information associated with the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was circulated by mass media in Bangladesh. There has been a rare example so far of how media intervention during the epidemic can affect the public behaviour of Bangladesh. We aimed to assess mass media's influence on changing public behaviour during the second wave of COVID-19. An online cross-sectional survey among 416 Bangladeshi respondents was conducted between August and September 2021. Besides descriptive statistics, datasets were analyzed through a set of statistical methods such as Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression model. The results showed that knowledge level change towards COVID-19 (10 items) had the highest association with behaviour change towards COVID-19 (16 items), indicating a high adoption of public behavior change. There was a positive significant relationship between the behaviour change towards COVID-19 (16 items) with the media's role in making awareness regarding COVID-19 (r= 0.342, p < .001), while there was a negative relationship between the behaviour change towards COVID-19 (16 items) of the respondents with age of participants (r= -.234, p < .001). The results also disclosed that knowledge level, media credibility, and media check-in had the largest contribution to influence the public behavior change. We also found that social media was highly used media as expected during the COVID-19 outbreak. The outcomes of the survey have vital implications for public behavior change and may support infectious disease suppression and control. Our outcomes also stress the significance of the reliability of information shared via mass media outlets and practical strategies to counter misinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Factors influence online donation during COVID-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused changes in human behaviour, including payment transaction methods from cash to non-cash. In addition, the National Non-Cash Program (GNTT) by Bank Indonesia (BI) also supports this new behaviour. This non-cash payment also occurs in donation payments, including zakat, infaq, alms and other Islamic social funds. This research analyses the factors influencing user behaviour (UB) towards the online donation from cash to non-cash. This study uses quantitative research within Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) tools. The data of this study is compiled by questionnaire on 124 respondents in East Java who made online donations during the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020 – 2021). This research uses a technology adaptation model that is the UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) model using the facilitating conditions (FC), performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE) and social influence (SI) variables. The results of this study indicate that (a) FC has a positive and significant effect on PE and SI, (b) PE and SI have a positive and significant effect on EE, and (3) PE and SI have a positive and significant effect on UB. Meanwhile, ease of donating online (Effort Expectancy) does not provide influence user behaviour of online donations. In addition, recommendations are also given to online donation organisations to improve collaboration, credibility and use of promotion media.

Insects as food: Knowledge, desire and media credibility. Ideas for a communication

Insects as food is a recommended cultural shift by the FAO, especially among Western consumers. The objective of this study is to understand those elements, which can most contribute to explaining the desire to eat insects as food. There-fore, we evaluated people's knowledge and beliefs about the benefits deriving from the farming and consumption of insects, for the health of man and the plan-et. Furthermore, we investigated people's perceived credibility towards the main sources of communication that can convey information on insects as food. Final-ly, some suggestions for possible future communication campaigns are presented.

Korzystanie z mediów społecznościowych przez pokolenie Z w czasie pandemii COVID-19

Social media have become one of the most important sources of information, especially for the young generation of users. The article presents the results of research conducted at the beginning of 2021 among 311 representatives of the Generation Z. The survey method was applied using the CAWI online questionnaire technique. Based on the conducted research, the type of information sought in social media was determined, indicating also the most useful, i.e. accessible and credible media, regarding the time of the pandemic. Predominantly, the respondents searched for information related to the number of infections in Poland, quarantine procedures and infection rate around the world. In the opinion of respondents, the Internet, in particular, Twitter and Facebook, is more useful than traditional media.

A Comparative Analysis of Credibility of Print Media & Social Media: A Study in Bhubaneswar

Particularly for newspapers, the modern era is turbulent and full of changes as more news sources migrate to online services. Print media is gradually becoming a dinosaur's method of information gathering, but are news stories in internet media more trustworthy and believable than those in printed media? The conformists and the revolutionaries have engaged in an ages-old dispute over this issue. Many trustworthy news sources have switched from print to online publishing and subscriptions since the turn of the last decade. People are relying more and more on their screens rather than paper to consume information. Their phones were constantly buzzing and beeping, alerting them that there had been another large-scale shooting in the United States. The present study is based on the credibility and trustworthiness of both print media and social media in a not-so-big city like Bhubaneswar.

An evaluation of social media advertising for Muslim millennial parents

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effects of informativeness, entertainment and credibility of social media on the perceived value of advertising for Muslim millennial parents. It evaluates the impact of these variables on brand awareness and purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed-method analysis with two stages. In the first stage, information from social media was collected. The second stage involved an online survey of 210 Muslim millennial parents. Structural equation modeling-partial least squares was used to test the study’s prediction.FindingsThe results showed that informativeness, entertainment and credibility of the message significantly influence Muslim millennial parents’ perceived value of social media advertising. These aspects also have a significant effect on brand awareness and purchase intention. The parents appreciate entertainment most, followed by the informativeness and credibility of the message.Practical implicationsThis study offers new insights on Muslim millennial parents as a new segment in the market. Social media advertising is the most appropriate strategy for approaching this segment, and therefore, should be given much attention by marketers. The message created needs to be informative, entertaining and credible. It should consider culture, Islamic values and tradition.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the evaluation of a new trend for Muslim millennials as young parents. The tendency to spend more time using social media as the primary source of information is evaluated. Additionally, this study gives marketers a better understanding of Muslim millennial parents, especially in a collective society.

Deepfakes, misinformation and disinformation and authenticity infrastructure responses: Impacts on frontline witnessing, distant witnessing, and civic journalism

Frontline witnessing and civic journalism are impacted by the rhetoric and the reality of misinformation and disinformation. This essay highlights key insights from activities of the human rights and civic journalism network WITNESS, as they seek to prepare for new forms of media manipulation, such as deepfakes, and to ensure that an emergent “authenticity infrastructure” is in place to respond to global needs for reliable information without creating additional harms. Based on global consultations on perceived threats and prioritized solutions, their efforts are primarily targeted towards synthetic media and deepfakes, which not only facilitate audiovisual falsification (including non-consensual sexual images) but also, by being embedded in societal dynamics of surveillance and civil society suppression, they challenge real footage and so undermine the credibility of civic media and frontline witnessing (also known as “liar’s dividend”). They do this within a global context where journalists and some distant witness investigators self-identify as lacking relevant skills and capacity, and face inequity in access to detection technologies. Within this context, “authenticity infrastructure” tracks media provenance, integrity, and manipulation from camera to edit to distribution, and so comes to provide “verification subsidies” that enable distant witnesses to properly interpret eye-witness footage. This “authenticity infrastructure” and related tools are rapidly moving from niche to mainstream in the form of initiatives the Content Authenticity Initiative and Coalition for Content Authenticity and Provenance, raising key questions about who participates in the production and dissemination of audiovisual information, under what circumstances and to which effect for whom. Provenance risks being weaponized unless key concerns are integrated into infrastructure proposals and implementation. Data may be used against vulnerable witnesses, or the absence of a trail, for legitimate privacy and technological access reasons, used to undermine credibility. Regulatory and extra-legal co-option are also a fear as securitized “fake news” laws proliferate. The investigation of both phenomena, deepfakes and emergent authenticity infrastructure(s), this paper argues, is important as it highlights the risks related both to the “information disorder” of deepfakes as they challenge the credibility and safety of frontline witnesses and to responses to such “disorder,” as they risk worsening inequities in access to tools for mitigation or increasing exposure to harms from technology infrastructure.

Measuring personal and academic differences in students’ perceived social media credibility

PurposeSocial media is a popular source for information sharing in the contemporary world. Social media allow individuals to create, publish and diffuse contents directly. This openness has increased the risk of running into misinformation and raised questions about credibility of information shared. This study aims to examine the credibility of social media through the perceptions of university students. It also intends to see the difference in opinions based on their gender, academic disciplines and programs of study.Design/methodology/approachThe study was based on a cross-sectional survey; a structured questionnaire was developed by consulting the relevant literature. Students were selected on convenient basis from all the programs of four universities of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Four hundred students were selected randomly from each university.FindingsThe findings indicated that students considered social media partially credible. Currency, community wellness, understandability and completeness of information were the highly rated facets, while factual and unbiased information was the low rated aspects. The perceived credibility of social media among the university students was the same across genders, programs of study and academic disciplines.Research limitations/implicationsThe study may be helpful for social media service providers to address the concerns that students had in their perception regarding its credibility.Originality/valueThis study may likely benefit faculty members, researchers, librarians/information professionals and digital libraries to understand the students’ concerns about social media credibility from a developing country’s perspective. Such understanding will enable them to better address, educate and train university students at how to evaluate the quality of information on social media by offering information literacy programs. It is direly needed that university libraries should train the students to be proficient in assessing the quality of information by offering information or digital literacy programs. Moreover, the study may be helpful for social media service providers to address the concerns that students had in their perception regarding its credibility.

“Ignorance is strength”

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Danish textual news satire constructs its social critique of the many Facebook users whose comments during COVID-19 imitate expert statements in disregard of authoritative health science statements. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, UNESCO has proclaimed a disinfodemic of emotive narrative constructs and pseudo-science on the internet and especially in social media. As with the ruling Party’s paradoxical slogan “ignorance is strength” in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, we sense a similar trend of the public disinfodemic, but studies of this paradox in satirical publications are scarce. Thus, the goal here is to scrutinize this enigma exemplified in an article in the Danish spoof news online media of RokokoPosten in which such experts are parodied in a kind of “doublethink” style which begs critical reflection on social media credibility. Hence, such textual news satire may potentially provide a vaccine against post-truth delusions of health science as it provides immunity against the disinfodemic by its own causative agents.

The Role of Source Credibility and Message Credibility in Fake News Engagement. Perspectives from an Experimental Study

Nowadays controversial stories, conspiracy theories, or false information are massively shared on social media. Fake news is supported by the online environment because it generates traffic and financial benefits (Tandoc et al., 2018). It is a chain — users share the news on their feed, then they receive the same type of content, later on, creating the illusion of veracity through popularity. Media credibility becomes more and more relevant in the context of the proliferation of fake news. The present paper addresses the mediating role of source and message credibility in relationship with the engagement with ‘poor journalistic’ content. We aimed to identify the effects of media reputation and of the facticity of the news on (digital) behavior such as the intent to disseminate or to comment on fake news on social media and also on discussing these contents with friends. For this purpose, we applied a 2x2 between subjects online experiment by manipulating the (1) the source (high vs. low reputation online media outlets) and (2) information facticity (high vs. low). Participants (N=177), aged 18 to 53 years were selected via Facebook and the study was carried out in February 2020. The results of our research are in line with previous literature that underlined the role of source and message credibility in influencing online and offline news engagement. We observed that source credibility has an impact on news sharing on Facebook and that message credibility encourages discussion with friends. This applies to both veridical and false information. The most important takeaway of our study is perhaps that users are aware that high reputation media outlets can make mistakes. Besides, media reputation is subject to change and is related to the audiences.

Public-private partnerships: How institutional linkages help to build organizational legitimacy in an international environment

Gaining legitimacy in their host country environment is a key priority for multinational corporations’ public relations efforts since it secures their local social license to operate. By applying neo-institutional public relations to corporate diplomacy, this paper argued that institutional linkages between corporations and local government could enhance the building of legitimacy. The study sought to determine whether institutional relations affect the perception of organizational legitimacy, focusing on the United Arab Emirates. In non-democratic countries, public relations tends to be perceived as less sophisticated, and legitimacy becomes even more critical for foreign corporations. Therefore, a one-factorial (corporate diplomacy with/ without governmental involvement) between-subjects experimental design study surveying a representative sample of residents in the United Arab Emirates (N = 199) was conducted. The results imply that corporate diplomacy with governmental linkages leads to a higher perception of moral, pragmatic, and regulative organizational legitimacy, partially mediated by media credibility, governmental legitimacy, and issue legitimacy.

Media Credibility, Misinformation, and Communication Patterns during MCO of COVID-19 in Malaysia

Media Credibility, Misinformation, and Communication Patterns during MCO of COVID-19 in Malaysia

Credibility of Digital Comic Media in Audio Visual Form on Style Topic for Elementary School Students

Lack of teacher creativity in learning to develop instructional media makes learning less effective. Therefore, it is necessary to develop media that can make students enthusiastic about learning, such as digital comics. This research produces a product in the form of Digital Comic media on elementary school student style whose validity has been tested. The model used is the ADDIE model with the stages of Analyze, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. In this study, digital comic media used as research subjects were 2 media expert lecturers, 2 material experts, 2 teachers. The method and instrument of data collection in this study is to use the rating scale method. To measure the validity of digital comic media using an instrument to assess the validity of digital comic media. The results of the data that have been obtained will be analyzed using the Aiken validity index formula for expert data and the mean formula for respondents' data in order to determine the validity of digital comic media. The results of the media validity on the Aiken validity index analysis, the assessment of the experts, got a score of 0.95 from the material experts with the criteria of "high validity", 0.95 from the media experts with the criteria of "high validity", while the analysis of the assessment scores of the respondents used the formula. The mean obtained an average of 4.57 from the practical response with the predicate "very good" and 4.50 from the student response with "very good". So, digital comic media is very suitable for use during the learning process, especially science learning.

Information seeking behaviors and media credibility among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted educational institutions around the world. Public health authorities have been at the forefront of the crisis launching public health campaigns to convey health messages and educate the public about the virus. This study used simple random sampling (N = 1,773) to examine information-seeking behaviors and the credibility of COVID-19 information among college students. The study further examined the association between the Health Belief Model (HBM), perceived threat, and the credibility of COVID-19 information. Results revealed the most and least likely communication channels students used to access COVID-19 information and the credibility of each channel. Students first went to public health authorities’ communication channels and sources for information. Traditional media channels ranked low in usage. Public health authorities ranked high in credibility, and the credibility of sources predicted a slight increase in the HBM and the perceived threat mean scores. Findings should help college administrators better communicate critical health information to students during a health crisis.

Look Who’s Writing: How Gender Affects News Credibility and Perceptions of News Relevance

Women reporters are underrepresented in newsrooms and assigned to gender-stereotypic roles, but to what effect? To better understand the role of gender in news making, this article utilizes three survey experiments to investigate the effects of journalists’ gender on reader perceptions toward reporter credibility, outlet credibility, and the relevance of news to them. We find little evidence that readers doubt the credibility of a reporter or a news outlet based on the gender of a reporter, the gender of the source, or the gendered nature of the issue. Our findings have implications for media credibility and newsroom diversity.