International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication

The Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication (한국인터넷방송통신학회)
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An exploratory study on the factors influencing credibility of television news and portal news

  • Najin Jun (Dept. of Global Media & Culture, Hannam University)
  • Received : 2023.08.12
  • Accepted : 2023.08.23
  • Published : 2023.11.30
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Abstract

News credibility is on a decline for many democratic countries. Among the countries, South Korea is currently witnessing one of the steepest declining curves. Since people obtain news from various media, for example, television and portals, news credibility can be measured for each of the media separately. Most often, television news credibility is much higher than portal news credibility because people tend to trust traditional media more than online ones. To understand the discrepancy between news credibility of the two media in specific relation to South Koreans' everyday news use and overall news credibility evaluation, this exploratory study examined how the factors that influence television news credibility and portal news credibility differ from each other by examining the relations of news credibility of the two media to credibility of news I use and of news in general. Drawing from previous research on partisan news use, it assumed that normative beliefs for television as a traditional medium work for television news credibility in the similar way as the mechanisms of selective exposure and bias perception do. It also assumed that the experiences dimension of news trust works for credibility of portal news and of news in general similarly. To verify these assumptions, a regression analysis was conducted from a sample of 58,936 South Koreans collected in 2022. As assumed, results revealed a greater relation between credibility of television news and of news I use, and between credibility of portal news and of news in general respectively. The findings suggest that measurement of credibility should be revised in the way that reflects media characteristics and the differing expectations held by news users.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by 2023 Hannam University Research Fund.

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