Based on Hovland and Weisss explanation about source credibility, this study defines news media credibility as being influenced by their expertness of news reporting and their trustworthiness for a society. It suggests 5 items as the determinants of the journalistic expertness of news media and 2 items as determinants of the trustworthiness of news medias social goodness. The following research questions were inquired: (1) which news media credibility will be the stronger predictor of overall news credibility? (2) how the 7 aspects of news media performances will be related to the credibility of TV news, newspapers, and the Internet news? METHOD: For this study, a nation-wide survey was conducted in South Korea from July 24th to August 14th, 2000. The research population consisted of a representative sample of the adult population aged from 18 to 65 in years selected by multi-stage area probability sampling method. In terms of the socio-demographic distribution of the sample, 31.5% of the total respondents (n= 1199) were from 18 to 29 in age; 28% of which were from 30 to 39; 21% of which were from 40 to 49; 19% of which were over 50. At formal education level, out of the 1199 respondents, 18.9% gained 9-year formal schooling and less; 44% gained high school diplomas; 37% gained college education and more. The ratio of male and female was 5 to 5. Generally, the sample well represented the research population, compared with 1995 Korea national census data. In terms of measurement, news media credibility was measured by asking respondents to indicate how much they consider each of TV news, newspapers, radio, magazines and the Internet news was credible on a 1-to-5 point scale (l= not at all and 5=very credible). Also, the respondents were asked to rate the credibility of news media in general on the same five-point scale. In addition, the 7 attributes of news media were measured by asking the respondents to rate the degree of accuracy, completeness, being unbiased, the amount of information, creativity, social significance, and political liberalism of news provided by each of news media channels such as TV, newspaper, and the Internet on a five-point scale (l=not at all and 5=very credible). FIDINGS: Research Question 1: The whole model consisting of 5 independent variables such as the credibility of TV news, newspapers, radios, magazines, and the Internet news explained about 50% of the total variance in the credibility of overall news media(F(5, 1045)=206.45, p<.001). Newspapers, TV, and radio proved to be statistically significant while the Internet?and magazines didnt. The publics overall perception of news media credibility appeared to heavily rely on their evaluation of newspapers credibility. Contrast to it, they didnt count the credibility of the Internet news when they were asked about overall credibility on news media. The Internet news appeared not to be thought of as a news medium. Research Question 2: the 7 components of media channel performances were related to newspapers credibility(F(7,1121)=42.56, p<.00l). The accuracy, fairness, being socially significant, and being politically liberal had a statistically significant influence on the credibility of newspapers whereas the completeness, amount of information, and creativity didnt. In the case of TV news(F(7, 1174)=72.40, P<.00l), the amount of information and creativity were no significant predictors of TV news credibility while the other 5 components were. On the other hand, the credibility of the Internet was seen as being influenced by the accuracy, completeness, fairness, and the amount of information but not by the creativity, being socially significant, being politically liberal. Generally, the component of creativity was not related to any of the credibility of TV news, newspapers, and the Internet news, resulting in the conclusion that it might be meaningless as a criterion to evaluate news media channel performance. Meanwhile, the other expertness-related components such as accuracy and fairness appeared to have an influence on the credibility of all of the three media channels. IMPLICATIONS: There was an interesting hint. The trustworthiness-related components of being socially significant and being politically liberal appeared to emerge as the determinants of the credibility of TV news and News-papers that were most influential in the publics perceived credibility on news media in general. Contrasts to it, the two components were not shown as the important determinants of the credibility of the Internet news that had no significant influence on the publics perceived credibility on news media in general. That is, trustworthiness-related components, characterized by the social goodness of news, are more meaningful in the publics perceived credibility of news media in general than expert-ness-related components. How strongly the public perceives news as having social goodness might be determinants to differentiate online news source from traditional news sources. It might be a little bit overstatement that the social goodness of news will be a sufficient condition while the journalistic professionalism of news will be a necessary condition.. With the lack of the social goodness of news, any information delivery system can be regarded as unreliable and invalid news medium. Of course, any information delivery system cannot be recognized as even a news medium with the lack of journalistic professionalism. The emergence of social goodness needs some special attention in terms of the role of news media in an information age. In order that the Internet information can be seen as news, the information has a quality of social goodness.
AI 요약
연구주제
연구배경
연구방법
연구결과
주요내용
목차
1. 들어가는 말 2. 이론적 논의와 연구문제 3. 연구 방법 4. 연구결과 5. 나가는 말 참고문헌 ABSTRACT