This study investigates a range of traditional and technological factors that contribute to credibility perceptions for three categories of online news sources. These sources include mainstream (usatoday.com, nytimes.com), independent (thedrudgereport.com, axisoflogic.com), and index-type (news.google.com, yahoo.news.com) websites. While traditional dimensions of credibility remain influential, results suggest that the hypertextuality of index-type online news sources is of particular importance. Multimediality and interactivity did not influence credibility perceptions. These results support the perspective that online media differ based on credibility and users' perceptions are in part based on the technological affordances of media. A major contribution of this research lies in the empirical demonstration of the relationships between technological characteristics of various online news sources and subsequent credibility assessments.

Rare studies have focused on how and why people use social networking sites (SNSs) utilizing individual-level variables such as self-construals and social/nonsocial motivations. This study proposes that the self-construal construct provides a good instrument for measuring the relationship between people's understanding of self as a predictor of social computing (Facebook use) and satisfaction. A survey was conducted with students from a large western U.S. university. Results indicate that interdependent self-construal is associated with social-motivations to use SNS, and such motivations lead to satisfaction with SNS use. In contrast, independent selfconstrual failed to predict SNS use. This finding supports the need to examine the influence of "cultural self" and "social motivations" when interpreting social media use behavior. Suggestions for future research are addressed.

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The present study conducts cross comparisons among nonprofits’ leading Internet platforms regarding use of dialogic principles and investigates relationships between this use and financial capacity. A content analysis was conducted of three Internet platforms (website, Facebook, and Twitter) of 60 U.S.-based environmental nonprofit organizations. The results reveal that (1) 85% of the organizations use either Facebook or Twitter, (2) the overall extent of dialogic principle employment is the highest for the website, followed by Facebook and Twitter, (3) positive correlations are found only between the website and Twitter in the dialogic principles of the dialogic loop and the usefulness of information to the public, and (4) organizational financial capacity is positively correlated only with Twitter in the overall dialogic principle employment. The results indicate that, although nonprofits operate multiple Internet platforms for relation building with the public, they substantially rely on their websites and use Facebook and Twitter to supplement particular dialogic features that are limited on websites.

Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model, this research aimed to investigate which important factors affect the potential behavior of rural tourism tourists. It also sought to identify the effects of social networking service (SNS) use on the rural tourism using TPB model. For analysis, a partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used. The results revealed that tourists were influenced by subjective norm and perceived behavior control, of which the effect of subjective norm was greater. Consumers’ use of SNS played a notable role in contributing to the strength of the relationship between intention to visit and subjective norm. Promoters and marketers of sustainable tourism can use the results to make more effective decisions in their businesses.