Traditional Reporting More Credible than Citizen News

Abstract

In an experiment comparing traditional news reporting to citizen blogs, university students rated traditional journalism as more credible than citizen journalism. Also, participants assessed straight news articles as more credible than opinionated reports of the same news.

Biased Objectivity: An Experiment on Information Preferences of Journalists and Citizens

“…It therefore becomes increasingly critical in current media environments where intentions and competence of information sources often remain vague (McQuail, Graber, & Norris, 2008; Shapiro, 2014). Accordingly, empirical research shows that citizens’ trust in information sources greatly depends on objectivity considerations: Media users conceive of news stories as the more credible and trustworthy the less they perceive them as biased and opinionated (Swasy, Tandoc, Bhandari, & Davis, 2015; Tsfati, Meyers, & Peri, 2006). In light of these findings, the objectivity norm appears essential for both journalists and citizens.…”

News Values Revisited: A Comparison between Citizen and Mainstream Media in Hong Kong

“…The credibility of Citizen Journalism has been one of the significant points of debate among scholars over the past decade (e.g., Carr et al 2014;Chung & Nah, 2012;2013;, Swasy et al, 2015. Credibility can be seen as the views of professional journalists' functions, as argued.…”

“…It also implies that when ordinary citizens can contribute to news, ordinary news contributors should reconsider the definition of news itself (Nah, 2020). It is commonly argued that there is a significant difference in the credibility between Citizen Journalism and mainstream media (Carr et al 2014;Chung, Carpenter & Nah, 2013;Johnson & Kaye, 2004;Swasy et al, 2015;Netzley & Hemmer, 2012). Some scholars pointed out that students considered conventional journalism more credible than Citizen Journalism (Swasy et al, 2015).…”

Information dissemination in new media: YouTube and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

“…The share of the public using these platforms to obtain news information is growing steadily, though there are clear distinctions between the ways each of the media are used and what they provide. Consequently, as was the case with previous technological changes in the media, this has raised many questions as to how this technology is used to inform the public (Kaufhold et al, 2010;Maier, 2010;Swasy et al, 2015). Some analyses have again posited a link between changes in media technology and political behavior.…”