An examination of credibility perceptions among Ball State University undergraduate students of news reports appearing in newspapers, television, and the World Wide Web

Abstract

This baseline study sought to evaluate Ball State University (BSU) undergraduate students' credibility perceptions of news reports gleaned from the World Wide Web (WWW). A random selection of 378 BSU undergraduate students were phoned and administered a questionnaire,which included newspaper and television news credibility questions for comparative purposes.Among WWW users and non-WWW users combined, credibility perceptions of newspaper and television news were not found to differ significantly, with the majority of respondents ranking newspapers and television medium in credibility. Television held a statistically significant lead over newspapers as the most believable news source in the event of conflicting reports of the same news story appearing in both media.WWW users rated the WWW medium in credibility and felt television to be more believable than newspapers and the WWW in the event of conflicting reports appearing in all three media.