Credibility for the 21st Century: Integrating Perspectives on Source, Message, and Media Credibility in the Contemporary Media Environment

Technological capabilities and features of the Internet and World Wide Web have prompted concerns about the verity of online information, the credibility of new media, and the new responsibilities placed on media consumers. Reflecting these concerns, scholars have shown a renewed interest in the credibility of sources, their messages, and the media that carry them. Nonetheless, researchers who are currently reengaging the issue of information credibility have yet to take full advantage of the rich heritage left by credibility research conducted over the last half century. The primary aim of this chapter is to show how past research can inform present attempts to understand credibility in the new media environment, focusing particularly on Web-based information. Toward that end, this chapter reviews, synthesizes, and integrates the substantial literature on source, message, and media credibility; addresses issues of credibility conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement; suggests strategies to empower online users and information providers; and culminates with strategies for credibility research and an agenda for the study of credibility in the contemporary media environment.

[1]  Sevellon Brown,et al.  CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATIONSOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS , 1937 .

[2]  M. Sherif,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1946, Psychological review.

[3]  C. I. Hovland,et al.  The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness , 1951 .

[4]  A. A. Lumsdaine.  Communication and persuasion , 1954 .

[5]  Bruce H. Westley,et al.  Some Correlates of Media Credibility , 1964 .

[6]  G. Miller,et al.  The effect of variations in Nonfluency on audience ratings of source credibility , 1964 .

[7]  Leslie W. Sargent.  Communicator Image and News Reception , 1965 .

[8]  Richard F. Carter,et al.  Newspapers or Television: Which Do You Believe? , 1965 .

[9]  B. Greenberg,et al.  Media Use and Believability: Some Multiple Correlates , 1966 .

[10]  H. Sharp,et al.  Effects of organization on the speaker's ethos , 1966 .

[11]  J. Mccroskey.  Scales for the measurement of ethos , 1966 .

[12]  K. Sereno,et al.  The effects of variations in speakers' nonfluency upon audience ratings of attitude toward the speech topic and speakers' credibility , 1967 .

[13]  James B. Lemert,et al.  The Invisible Newsman and Other Factors in Media Competition , 1968 .

[14]  J. Whitehead.  Factors of source credibility , 1968 .

[15]  J. Mccroskey.  A summary of experimental research on the effects of evidence in persuasive communication , 1969 .

[16]  James B. Lemert,et al.  DIMENSIONS FOR EVALUATING THE ACCEPTABILITY OF MESSAGE SOURCES , 1969 .

[17]  D. Byrne.  Attitudes and Attraction , 1969 .

[18]  James C. McCroskey,et al.  The effects of disorganization and nonfluency on attitude change and source credibility , 1969 .

[19]  Hazel Erskine.  THE POLLS: OPINION OF THE NEWS MEDIA , 1970 .

[20]  P. J. Tichenor,et al.  MASS MEDIA FLOW AND DIFFERENTIAL GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE , 1970 .

[21]  P. Rosenthal.  Specificity, verifiability, and message credibility , 1971 .

[22]  M. Zanna,et al.  Perceived credibility of television news: A matter of viewer's attitudes and the position taken by the media , 1973 .

[23]  E. Shaw,et al.  Media Credibility: Taking The Measure of a Measure , 1973 .

[24]  Dale T. Miller,et al.  The Effect of Regional Similarity-Dissimilarity on Communicator Credibility , 1973, Language and speech.

[25]  Marshall McLuhan,et al.  Television: Technology and Cultural Form , 1978 .

[26]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  An instrument for measuring the source credibility of basic speech communication instructors , 1974 .

[27]  Helen Fleshler,et al.  The influence of field dependence, speaker credibility set, and message documentation on evaluations of speaker and message credibility , 1974 .

[28]  James C. McCroskey,et al.  Image of mass media news sources , 1975 .

[29]  Stephen Worchel,et al.  Is the Medium the Message? A Study of the Effects of Media, Communicator, and Message Characteristics on Attitude Change1 , 1975 .

[30]  C. O'Reilly,et al.  Relationships among components of credibility and communication behaviors in work units. , 1976 .

[31]  Michael W. Singletary.  Components of Credibility of a Favorable News Source , 1976 .

[32]  Jo Liska,et al.  A critique of factor analytic approaches to the study of credibility , 1976 .

[33]  J. Delia,et al.  A constructivist analysis of the concept of credibility , 1976 .

[34]  Michael O. Wirth,et al.  Newspaper vs. TV Credibility for Local News , 1977 .

[35]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  The effect of quality of evidence on attitude change and source credibility , 1978 .

[36]  Stephen Worchel,et al.  Effects of Media, Communicator,and Message Position onAttitude Change , 1978 .

[37]  C. E. Wilson,et al.  Public Perception of Media Accuracy , 1978 .

[38]  Raymond George Smith,et al.  The Message Measurement Inventory: A Profile for Communication Analysis , 1978 .

[39]  Raymond S. H. Lee.  Credibility of Newspaper and TV News , 1978 .

[40]  A. Edelstein.  An Alternative Approach to the Study of Source Effects in MASS Communication , 1978 .

[41]  Joey Reagan,et al.  Local News Credibility: Newspapers vs. TV Revisited , 1979 .

[42]  Frederick T. Bacon.  Credibility of Repeated Statements: Memory for Trivia. , 1979 .

[43]  Ronald Mulder,et al.  Media Credibility: A Use-Gratifications Approach , 1980 .

[44]  W. Gantz,et al.  The influence of researcher methods on television and newspaper news credibility evaluations , 1981 .

[45]  Leonard N. Reid,et al.  Factor Study of Dimensions of Advertiser Credibility , 1981 .

[46]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches , 1981 .

[47]  W. E. Jurma.  Evaluations of Credibility of the Source of a Message , 1981 .

[48]  R. Mulder.  A Log-Linear Analysis of Media Credibility , 1981 .

[49]  Donald R. Atkinson,et al.  Sexual preference similarity, attitude similarity, and perceived counseling credibility and attractiveness. , 1981 .

[50]  C. Gaziano,et al.  Measuring the Concept of Credibility , 1986 .

[51]  Dale G. Leathers.  Successful nonverbal communication : principles and applications , 1986 .

[52]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion , 1986, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.

[53]  S. Hammond.  Health Advertising: The Credibility of Organizational Sources , 1987 .

[54]  David H. Weaver,et al.  Different Questions, Different Answers? Media Use and Media Credibility , 1987 .

[55]  William L. Benoit.  Argumentation and credibility appeals in persuasion , 1987 .

[56]  Andrew Kohut,et al.  BELIEVABILITY AND THE PRESS , 1988 .

[57]  C. Gaziano.  How Credible is the Credibility Crisis? , 1988 .

[58]  Joohn C. Reinard.  The Empirical Study of the Persuasive Effects of Evidence The Status After Fifty Years of Research , 1988 .

[59]  Albert C. Gunther,et al.  Attitude Extremity and Trust in Media , 1988 .

[60]  Tom J. van Weert,et al.  Literacy in the Information Age , 1988 .

[61]  Philip Meyer,et al.  Defining and Measuring Credibility of Newspapers: Developing an Index , 1988 .

[62]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  An Empirical Examination of the Structural Antecedents of Attitude toward the Ad in an Advertising Pretesting Context , 1989 .

[63]  C. Nass,et al.  Differential Criteria for Evaluating Credibility of Newspapers and TV News , 1989 .

[64]  L. Standing,et al.  Communicator Credibility: Trustworthiness Defeats Expertness. , 1989 .

[65]  Roobina Ohanian.  Construction and Validation of a Scale to Measure Celebrity Endorsers' Perceived Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Attractiveness , 1990 .

[66]  D. O’Keefe.  Persuasion , 1990, The Handbook of Communication Skills.

[67]  Roobina Ohanian.  The impact of celebrity spokespersons' perceived image on consumers' intention to purchase. , 1991 .

[68]  R. J. Cline,et al.  College student's perceptions of sources of information about AIDS. , 1991, Journal of American college health : J of ACH.

[69]  Ian Begg,et al.  Dissociation of processes in belief: Source recollection, statement familiarity, and the illusion of truth , 1992 .

[70]  Albert C. Gunther,et al.  BIASED PRESS OR BIASED PUBLIC? ATTITUDES TOWARD MEDIA COVERAGE OF SOCIAL GROUPS , 1992 .

[71]  C. E. Cortés.  Media Literacy , 1992 .

[72]  R. K. Aune,et al.  Effects of Language Intensity Similarity on Perceptions of Credibility Relational Attributions, and Persuasion , 1993 .

[73]  Daniel L. Sherrell,et al.  Source effects in communication and persuasion research: A meta-analysis of effect size , 1993 .

[74]  J. W. Wanzenried,et al.  Source Credibility and Dimensional Stability: A Test of the Leathers Personal Credibility Scale Using Perceptions of Three Presidential Candidates , 1993 .

[75]  K. Stamm,et al.  The Relationship of Attitudinal Components to Trust in Media , 1994 .

[76]  E. Austin,et al.  Source v. Content Effects on Judgments of News Believability , 1994 .

[77]  Mark D. West,et al.  Validating a Scale for the Measurement of Credibility: A Covariance Structure Modeling Approach , 1994 .

[78]  L. Boehm,et al.  The Validity Effect: A Search for Mediating Variables , 1994 .

[79]  John December,et al.  World Wide Web Unleashed , 1994 .

[80]  W. Wanta,et al.  The Effects of Credibility, Reliance, and Exposure on Media Agenda-Setting: A Path Analysis Model , 1994 .

[81]  F. C. Powell,et al.  Do Current Measures of Dimensions of Source Credibility Produce Stable Outcomes in Replicated Tests? 1 , 1995 .

[82]  Cheryl Harris,et al.  An Internet Education: A Guide to Doing Research on the Internet , 1995 .

[83]  M. Slater,et al.  How Message Evaluation and Source Attributes May Influence Credibility Assessment and Belief Change , 1996 .

[84]  G. Bobinski,et al.  Retail “sale” advertising, perceived retailer credibility, and price rationale , 1996 .

[85]  Eric Haley,et al.  Exploring the Construct of Organization as Source: Consumers' Understandings of Organizational Sponsorship of Advocacy Advertising , 1996 .

[86]  Donald R. Atkinson,et al.  Effects of perceived etiology attribution similarity on client ratings of counselor credibility , 1996 .

[87]  C. Ogan,et al.  The Internet as Mass Medium , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[88]  Merrill Morris.  The Internet as Mass Medium , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[89]  Milton P. Huang,et al.  The Internet and the future of psychiatry. , 1996, The American journal of psychiatry.

[90]  Alastair G. Smith,et al.  Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources , 1997 .

[91]  G D Lundberg,et al.  Assessing, controlling, and assuring the quality of medical information on the Internet: Caveant lector et viewor--Let the reader and viewer beware. , 1997, JAMA.

[92]  R. Kubey,et al.  Media literacy in the information age : current perspectives , 1997 .

[93]  J. Eisenberg,et al.  Views from funding agencies. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. , 1998, Medical care.

[94]  Diane F. Witmer.  Introduction to computer‐mediated communication: A master syllabus for teaching communication technology , 1998 .

[95]  John S. Seiter,et al.  Persuasion: Social Inflence and Compliance Gaining , 2015 .

[96]  A R Jadad,et al.  Rating health information on the Internet: navigating to knowledge or to Babel? , 1998, JAMA.

[97]  Michael Joyce,et al.  Page to Screen: Taking Literacy into the Electronic Age , 1998 .

[98]  John Eighmey,et al.  Adding Value in the Information Age: Uses and Gratifications of Sites on the World Wide Web , 1998 .

[99]  M. Hamilton.  Message Variables That Mediate and Moderate the Effect of Equivocal Language on Source Credibility , 1998 .

[100]  Nicholas C. Burbules,et al.  Rhetorics of the web: hyperreading and critical literacy" in page to screen: taking literacy into th , 2003 .

[101]  Nicholas J. Belkin,et al.  Understanding Judgment of Information Quality and Cognitive Authority in the WWW , 1998 .

[102]  Debra Jones,et al.  Exploring the Internet Using Critical Thinking Skills: A Self-Paced Workbook for Learning to Effectively Use the Internet and Evaluate Online Information , 1998 .

[103]  S. Sundar,et al.  Effect of Source Attribution on Perception of Online News Stories , 1998 .

[104]  Thomas J. Johnson,et al.  Cruising is Believing?: Comparing Internet and Traditional Sources on Media Credibility Measures , 1998 .

[105]  M. Swartz.  Evaluating information on the Internet. , 1998, Journal of pediatric health care : official publication of National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates & Practitioners.

[106]  B. Kahn,et al.  How Tolerable is Delay? Consumers’ Evaluations of Internet Web Sites after Waiting , 1998 .

[107]  Ronald E. Goldsmith,et al.  Corporate Credibility's Role in Consumers' Attitudes and Purchase Intentions When a High versus a Low Credibility Endorser Is Used in the Ad , 1999 .

[108]  Alison A. Plessinger,et al.  Exploring Receivers' Criteria for Perception of Print and Online News , 1999 .

[109]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Credibility and computing technology , 1999, CACM.

[110]  Qimei Chen,et al.  Attitude Toward the Site , 1999 .

[111]  Cathleen D. Rafferty.  Literacy in the Information Age. , 1999 .

[112]  M. Culnan,et al.  Information Privacy Concerns, Procedural Fairness, and Impersonal Trust: An Empirical Investigation , 1999 .

[113]  Bo N. Schenkman,et al.  Aesthetics and preferences of web pages , 2000, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[114]  Quality of web based information on treatment of depression: cross sectional survey. , 2000, BMJ.

[115]  Wolfgang Schweiger,et al.  Media Credibility — Experience or Image? , 2000 .

[116]  Sung Tae Kim,et al.  Media Reporting and Perceived Credibility of Online Polls , 2000 .

[117]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Source Orientation in Human-Computer Interaction , 2000, Commun. Res..

[118]  Barbara A. Lafferty,et al.  The Impact of Corporate Credibility and Celebrity Credibility on Consumer Reaction to Advertisements and Brands , 2000 .

[119]  Jonathan Marshall,et al.  The impact of displayed awards on the credibility and retention of Web site information , 2000, AMIA.

[120]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  Perceptions of Internet Information Credibility , 2000 .

[121]  Barbara K. Kaye,et al.  Using Is Believing: The Influence of Reliance on the Credibility of Online Political Information among Politically Interested Internet Users , 2000 .

[122]  J. Burgoon,et al.  Interactivity in human–computer interaction: a study of credibility, understanding, and influence , 2000 .

[123]  Gordon C. Bruner,et al.  Webpage Background and Viewer Attitudes , 2000, Journal of Advertising Research.

[124]  H. Christensen,et al.  The Internet and mental health literacy. , 2000, The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry.

[125]  Anne Morris,et al.  Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web , 2000 .

[126]  M. N. Browne,et al.  THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL THINKING FOR STUDENT USE OF THE INTERNET , 2000 .

[127]  H. Christensen,et al.  Quality of web based information on treatment of depression: cross sectional survey , 2000, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[128]  Samer Faraj,et al.  The Role of Intermediaries in the Development of Trust on the WWW: The Use and Prominence of Trusted Third Parties and Privacy Statements , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[129]  John Renner,et al.  Criteria for assessing the quality of health information on the Internet. , 1997, American journal of public health.

[130]  Matthew S. Eastin,et al.  Credibility Assessments of Online Health Information: The Effects of Source Expertise and Knowledge of Content , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[131]  C. Nass,et al.  Conceptualizing Sources in Online News , 2001 .

[132]  Spiro K. Kiousis,et al.  Public Trust or Mistrust? Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age , 2001 .

[133]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  What makes Web sites credible?: a report on a large quantitative study , 2001, CHI.

[134]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Web credibility research: a method for online experiments and early study results , 2001, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[135]  N. Ashkanasy,et al.  Communicating trustworthiness and building trust in interorganizational virtual organizations , 2001 .

[136]  S. Chaffee.  Studying the New Communication of Politics , 2001 .

[137]  S. Chadwick.  Communicating Trust in E-Commerce Interactions , 2001 .

[138]  Laura J Gurak,et al.  Cyberliteracy: Navigating the Internet with Awareness , 2001 .

[139]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  Internet use in the contemporary media environment. , 2001 .

[140]  Thomas J. Johnson,et al.  Webelievability: A Path Model Examining How Convenience and Reliance Predict Online Credibility , 2002 .

[141]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  The perceived credibility of personal Web page information as influenced by the sex of the source , 2003, Comput. Hum. Behav..