Website Credibility Research Articles

Widely Accepted Credibility Criteria for Online Health-related Information Are Not Correlated with Content Quality of Stroke Webpages in Two Languages of Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract Background: Finding accurate health-related information on the Internet may be a real challenge for users lacking the critical skills necessary to assess the validity of online content, even if they browse websites that are compliant with credibility criteria. The aim of the study was to check whether an overall high website credibility or compliance to any of the individual criteria for credibility are correlated/associated with a higher quality of health-related information on a sample of Romanian and Hungarian stroke-related websites. Methods: The cross-sectional study included a sample of 50 websites presenting stroke for the general population in Romanian and Hungarian language. The websites’ compliance with 12 widely recognized credibility criteria, and the completeness and accuracy of the stroke-related articles found on the respective sites were systematically assessed by two independent evaluators applying a common evaluation procedure. Results: The mean value of the credibility score was 4.3 points (95% CI: 3.9–4.8), the mean value of the completeness score was 4.8 points (95% CI: 4.2–5.5), and the mean value of the accuracy score was 6.6 points (95% CI: 6.3–6.8). Correlation coefficients between the credibility score and completeness/accuracy score did not reach statistical significance (Spearman rho = 0.038, p = 0.793 and Spearman rho = 0.156, p = 0.278, respectively). With a few exceptions, the t-tests for independent sample comparison have shown no significant differences between websites that complied and those that did not comply with each individual credibility criterion. Conclusions: The mean credibility score of the Romanian and Hungarian stroke-related websites was poor and it was not correlated with neither completeness nor accuracy of the information displayed on the respective pages. With a few, practically irrelevant exceptions, compliance with individual credibility criteria was not associated with higher content quality on the investigated sample.

The Influence of Online Customer Reviews on Sport Consumers’ Purchase Intentions: The Mediating Effect of the Perceived Credibility of Website

This study aims to examine how online customer reviews and perceived credibility of online shopping sites affect sport consumers’ purchase intentions online. A total of 204 surveys collected from college students in East and Midwest areas in the United States were analyzed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling test. The results of the study revealed that attitude toward online customer reviews positively influenced online purchase intentions and perceived credibility of website, and there was a mediating effect of the perceived credibility of the website on the relationship between attitude toward online customer reviews and online purchase intentions. This study provides online marketers with practical information regarding how to take advantage of information from online customer reviews on online shopping sites in order to promote sport consumers’ purchase behaviors.

Water fluoridation and the quality of information available online

The Internet has transformed the way in which people approach their health care, with online resources becoming a primary source of health information. Little work has assessed the quality of online information regarding community water fluoridation. This study sought to assess the information available to individuals searching online for information, with emphasis on the credibility and quality of websites. We identified the top 10 web pages returned from different search engines, using common fluoridation search terms (identified in Google Trends). Web pages were scored using a credibility, quality and health literacy tool based on Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GAVCS) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria. Scores were compared according to their fluoridation stance and domain type, then ranked by quality. The functionality of the scoring tool was analysed via a Bland-Altman plot of inter-rater reliability. Five-hundred web pages were returned, of which 55 were scored following removal of duplicates and irrelevant pages. Of these, 28 (51%) were pro-fluoridation, 16 (29%) were neutral and 11 (20%) were anti-fluoridation. Pro, neutral and anti-fluoridation pages scored well against health literacy standards (0.91, 0.90 and 0.81/1 respectively). Neutral and pro-fluoridation web pages showed strong credibility, with mean scores of 0.80 and 0.85 respectively, while anti-fluoridation scored 0.62/1. Most pages scored poorly for content quality, providing a moderate amount of superficial information. Those seeking online information regarding water fluoridation are faced with comprehensible, yet poorly referenced, superficial information. Sites were credible and user friendly; however, our results suggest that online resources need to focus on providing more transparent information with appropriate figures to consolidate the information.

Rendszer az egészségügyi weboldalak hitelesítésére

The unreliable quality of online health contents poses a serious challenge to the medical profession. Evaluating websites on the basis of their credibility increases the chance for readers to access professional content of better quality. Hungary still lags behind in taking practical steps to improve the quality and reliability of online patient education. EgészségKommandó (HealthCommando) is a new Hungarian objective scoring system established to evaluate the credibility of health related websites. It uses four types of indicators: transparency, content, recommendations, references. We evaluated 122 websites with EgészségKommandó. Out of this, 22.1% qualified as credible. The same assessment using JAMA benchmarks yielded only one credible website (0.8%). The most frequent deficiencies were the absence of reference to source, the omission of the quote that "the website information does not replace the doctor-patient discussion", and the identity of the author. In 45.9% of the cases, however, the content was written by medical professionals with contact information. By applying different types of credibility and quality indicators in a scoring system, EgészségKommandó can efficiently assess the websites on health-awareness. In cases where the recognized indicators are absent multiple times from a website, it will not pass the credibility test. Thus, EgészégKommandó can act as a filter. At the same time, EgészségKommandó is also capable of assessing webpages of different sorts systemically, and can recommend a proportionately large amount of reliable Hungarian medical web resources to those interested. Orv Hetil. 2018; 159(13): 511-519.

Why we need a new approach to teaching digital literacy

In recent years — and especially since the 2016 presidential election — numerous media organizations, newspapers, and policy advocates have made efforts to help Americans become more careful consumers of the information they see online. In K-12 and higher education, the main approach has been to provide students with checklists they can use to assess the credibility of individual websites. However, the checklist approach is outdated. It would be far better to teach young people to follow the lead of professional fact-checkers: When confronted by a new and unfamiliar website, they begin by looking elsewhere on the web, searching for any information that might shed light on who created the site in question and for what purpose.

The determinants and consequences of website credibility in e-retailing: examining the roles of ethical issues

In the e-tailing context, little is known about ethical determinants of consumers' perceptions of the credibility of a retailer's website (i.e., website credibility). Thus, this study examines the impact of ethical issues (i.e., privacy, security, fulfilment, and non-deception) on website credibility and its subsequent influence on consumers' attitudes toward site and behavioural intentions. Results show that fulfilment and non-deception are related positively to website credibility, which ultimately influences consumers' attitudes toward retailer's website. However, security and privacy were not significant predictors of website credibility. Attitude toward the website is significantly related to purchase intent, revisit intent, and positive word-of-mouth.

Understanding multilingual web users' code‐switching behaviors in online searching

ABSTRACTThe availability of information in different languages on the Internet allows multilingual web users to search in multiple languages for the same search task. When searchers can search in multiple languages, they may combine these languages in various ways during searching. Few studies have examined multilingual web users' language switching behaviors in two or more languages online, specifically their code‐switching search patterns. This research investigates native Chinese web users' code‐switching (Chinese‐English) search patterns in their information seeking process through controlled lab experiments and interviews. Results reveal three general code‐switching search models for multilingual web users for their search tasks. Findings highlight factors and reasons for multilingual web users' situational and metaphorical code‐switching during their information search on the Web. We find that multilingual web users switch code situationally due to pragmatic reasons such as information sufficiency, language proficiency, information verification, context, and translation. Metaphorical code‐switching behaviors were motivated by the searchers' language image, cultural perspective, website credibility, sense of belonging, and psychological acceptance. We also investigate these users' code‐switching search strategies. The study aims to provide design implications for website design concerning multilingual web users' code‐switching search strategies, habits, and needs.

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

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

The determinants and consequences of website credibility in e-retailing: examining the roles of ethical issues

The determinants and consequences of website credibility in e-retailing: examining the roles of ethical issues

The Interplay of Aesthetics, Usability and Credibility in Mobile Website Design and the Effect of Gender

In human-computer interaction, aesthetics, usability and credibility are key factors in the design of a successful website. Specifically, aesthetics has been identified as one of the main drivers of web credibility. However, in the mobile domain, large-scale research, cutting across cultures and continents, which is key to the generalizability of findings, is scarce. To bridge this gap, we conducted a multicultural study among 526 participants from 5 continents: Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Europe. Using four systematically designed mobile websites, we investigated: (1) the interrelationships among aesthetics, usability and credibility; and (2) the moderating effect of gender. Our results, based on partial least square path modeling, reveal that: (1) perceived aesthetics is stronger than perceived usability in predicting the perceived credibility of mobile websites; and (2) gender moderates the effect of perceived aesthetics on perceived usability, with this effect being stronger for males than for females. Our findings underscore the need for designers to pay closer attention to aesthetics in designing successful mobile websites, as their visual appeal, irrespective of gender, enhances their perceived ease of use and credibility. These findings are noteworthy because, given the usability challenges posed by the relatively small-screen size of the mobile device, designers may be tempted to focus on designing easy-to-use websites only, while downplaying their visual appeal. Such a decision may adversely impact the overall credibility of their websites going by users’ first impression.

KREDIBILITAS SITUS SAHAM ONLINE: PENDEKATAN USABILITAS, DESAIN DAN INFORMASI KONTEN SITUS BURSA EFEK INDONESIA

Credibility of website especially on trading market is important for shareholders to get stockexchange information. Websites are the extension of organization that could attract business’s target market and potential customer. However, previous studies found that usability, design, and content may affect the website credibility. Many stock exchange markets such as Nigerian/NSE, Baku/BSE, Irish/ISE, Mauritus/SEM including Securities and Exchange Commission/SEC concerned and improve about their website. This study aims to observe variable of usability, design and content which affect website credibility on Indonesia context especially with idx.co.id as a treatment. This reaserch method using quasi-experiment with 30 participants with the equivalent time-samples design and adopting Bipolar Emotional Response Testing (BERT), this study found that website credibility was explained about 51.6% by usability, design, and information variables. Moreover, information variable contributed bigger than other two variables while usability variable did not contribute significantly. Specifically, information variable become important for the credibility of website which did not have transaction feature.

Investigating the online customer experience – a B2B perspective

PurposeThis paper explores the online customer experience (OCE) within business-to-business (B2B) websites. The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of website credibility and information quality on the OCE during search for information and services. In addition, this paper acknowledges the role of customer support within the offline environment and thus explores the potential role of online customer support during a customer’s online experience.Design/methodology/approachAn online experiment was conducted with 195 participants along with an associated questionnaire for data capture. Three tasks were developed for participants which they had to complete on three different business advisory websites. The online experiment gave all participants the experience of using a business advisory website. In order to analyse the hypothesised relationships, structural equation modelling was used.FindingsThe results outlined that the credibility of the website and the quality of the information on the website have a significant effect on the OCE in a B2B context. The research highlights the need for online customer support with a service representative during search on a B2B website. The credibility of the website as well as the success of the search drives the need for online customer support. The lack of online customer support will result in customers becoming dissatisfied with their experience if they have an unsuccessful search.Practical implicationsManagers of B2B websites should acknowledge the importance of website credibility cues and information quality cues. Each of these variables drive the success of a customer’s search and in turn the customer’s impression of the experience. Additionally, managers ought to provide customers online support, through functions such as an online help desk or a live chat function, as those who have an unsuccessful search expect to be able to seek online support from a company representative, the same way as they would do in the offline environment. Online customer support can act as a service recovery tool for website providers.Originality/valueEmpirical research on the OCE within B2B websites is limited and somewhat out-dated. Due to technological advancements and changing customer expectations, this research has filled a knowledge gap on the OCE in a B2B perspective. Website credibility and information quality have been overlooked in previous research in relation to the OCE. In addition, this study outlines the need for online customer support resulting from the need to clarify information and the success of the search.

Sport league website: an effective marketing communication tool for corporate sponsors

PurposeAlthough high-profile sport league website sponsorships have increased in popularity over the last decade, academic research on the topic has not kept pace, resulting in little knowledge of ways to improve the effectiveness of this sponsorship type. This paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe current study examined the influence of three website-related variables (i.e. website interactivity, website fit, and website credibility), while controlling for a sponsor-related variable (i.e. sponsor familiarity), on consumer attitude toward the sponsor ad and willingness to click on its banner ad. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated three main effects. Practical implications are discussed with limitations and suggestions for future research.FindingsThis study found three important things. First, website interactivity played an important role in attitude toward the ad and willingness to click on the banner ad. Second, website fit influenced attitude toward the ad and willingness to click on the banner ad. Third, website credibility influenced attitude toward the ad.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that in order to maximize online sports sponsorship outcomes, companies must keep in mind that the interactivity between the web users and the site should be regarded as the most pragmatic result which could come from the online sports sponsorship territory.

Improvement of External factor dimension’s structure for the assessment of persuasiveness of tourism destination websites using Factor analysis

Website is a complex system, which can be divided to several dimensions. This research is a part of research aimed to create Destination Management/Marketing Organization (DMO) tourism websites success evaluation instrument. External variables are cognitive and psychological factors, e. g. knowledge and interest towards destination, destination’s popularity and perceived credibility of website. These variables affect individual’s attitudes and beliefs and are influencing behavioral intention to visit a destination. Aim of this research is to explore the structure of the external variables and reduce quantity of variables for usage in subsequent research. Exploratory factor analysis discovered different structure from initially proposed basing on theory review. Four new factors were extracted, total quantity of variables were reduced. Factors were not found to be strongly reliable, and fourth factor found to be least reliable.

The impact of recommendations and warnings on the quality evaluation of health websites: An online experiment

With the increase in availability of online health information (OHI), consumers need to be able to properly evaluate the quality of health websites. Although several established evaluation criteria for OHI are available, these are rarely used by consumers. To improve people's ability and motivation to critically evaluate OHI, insights into how these criteria can optimally be communicated are needed. This study aims to investigate whether educational messages recommending the use of quality criteria can improve consumers' ability to evaluate OHI credibility, especially among people with low health literacy. We also test whether these messages can yield a stronger effect when combined with information warning consumers against using non-established criteria. In an online experiment, we randomly assigned 403 participants to one of four conditions and asked them to evaluate two websites of different quality. The conditions consisted of recommendations promoting the use of established evaluation criteria, warnings against using commonly adopted non-established criteria, a combination of the two, and a control group. Participants exposed to messages recommending established criteria evaluated the credibility of the lower quality website as poorer, and were better able to discriminate between high and low quality information compared to those in the control group. A combination of recommendations and warnings also improved people's ability to evaluate, but did not yield a stronger effect than the recommendations alone. Subgroup analysis, however, showed that these effects existed only for those with high health literacy. We conclude that providing consumers with criteria to evaluate OHI might be a viable way to improve people's evaluation skills of online health materials. Further research is needed to identify efficient ways to communicate these criteria to low health literate audiences.

The effects of social presence, contextual congruence and source credibility in evaluation of online advertising on news websites

This study investigates how advertising on news websites is affected by social presence, contextual congruence and source credibility. It employs a 2 (social presence vs. no social presence) × 2 (contextual congruence vs. no contextual congruence) × 2 (high website credibility vs. low website credibility) between-subject factorial experimental design. Participating in this study are a total of 328 students from a university in the upper Midwest. Findings suggest that social presence positively influences how consumers evaluate advertising and brand. Contextual congruence also positively influences consumers' advertising and brand evaluations. Source credibility, however, positively influences only advertising evaluation (not brand evaluation). This study broadens our understanding of the roles of social presence, contextual congruence, and media vehicle effects in a computer-mediated communication context.

The influence of the assessment of internet websites offering tourist services on the manner of purchase of holiday packages

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: how does the trust of websites offering tourist services influence the manner of purchase of accommodation services and holiday packages? Data were obtained from 505 respondents via an Internet-based questionnaire between May and October 2015. All of the respondents were Polish Internet users. Individuals who both sought information on tourist services and purchased the services offline indicated that the websites of hotels, travel agencies, and tour operators are the most credible. Another group who held a high opinion of hotels and tourist intermediaries’ websites was composed of people characterised by the ‘research online, purchase offline’ (ROPO) effect or the reverse-ROPO effect. People who searched for information on holiday packages and bought them via the Internet held a lower opinion of websites of hotels, travel agents, and tour operators. Research indicates that with respect to the assessment of the credibility of websites offering tourist services, there are significant differences between individuals seeking information on tourist services online and those who purchase such services online.

The Credibility of Islamic Religious Institutional Websites in Malaysia

This study is an attempt to fill the gap in website credibility studies and online religious studies, as these areas seldom link when researching the credibility of Islamic religious websites. The researcher investigates the nature of 13 state-based Islamic institutional religious websites to discover whether these websites are seen as credible, based on a framework of website credibility. Eight media and communication experts were interviewed. The findings suggest that institutional Islamic religious websites have achieved the authority and objectivity features of website credibility. However, the authority of the websites requires that the accuracy, currency and coverage features are upgraded. This study is timely as it contributes to the fields of internet, communication, and religious studies.

Presence of online reader comments lowers news site credibility

The authors raise questions about the effects of reader comments on online news credibility, and among their findings is that the same feature—readers’ comments—that makes online news more appealing also decreases the credibility of the news outlet. The commenting system and the way comments are moderated do not appear to affect a news outlet’s credibility.

A Proposed Assessment Criterion for E-Learning Sites Evaluation: An Experts’ Opinion

<p>An increasing growth in the number of e-learning sites at universities and other educational institutions led to necessary of develop and adopt a standards element to assess these sites to ensure efficiency, rival, and educational quality. Therefore, this study proposed an assessment criterion to evaluate the e-learning sites as a guide for decision-makers in order to purchase and development e-learning sites in which these assessment criterions are commensurate with the learning process. An experts’ opinion from universities professors who specialize in the field of teaching in different Jordan universities have been considered in order to develop a proposed assessment criterion, the result shows that the assessment criterion to evaluate the e-learning sites has twenty six criterion under five main categorizes namely: website design, and scientific knowledge content, technical elements, operational elements and finally with credibility of information sites. Given that the proposed assessment criterion to evaluate e-learning sites is guide for students, teachers, owners and developers about the benefits of e-learning sites.</p>