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CREDIBILITY AND REALIBILITY OF ONLINE NEWS AS PERCEIVED

BY FACULTY IN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS DEPARTMENT OF

THE UNIVERSITY OF MAKATI

A Thesis Proposal

Presented to the College of Arts and Letters

University of Makati

In partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the Degree

of Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Production

by

Barquilla, Beverly A.

Ceneta, Elia Nica V.

Capardo, John Carlos T.

Dargantes, Charlotte Joy V.

III-BR2

October, 2019
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CHAPTER I

ABSTRACT

The advent of online news has brought a lot of opportunities and

challenges for the current generation’s views about news. There is

no doubt that the Internet have impacted the way in which

individuals consume news. Consumers are becoming the news

creators and journalists in the new period are no longer deciding

what information the public should know but instead are helping

audiences make sense of it.

Correspondingly, a report by the Project for Excellence in

Journalism (2004) contends that the increasing availability of news

and information from both legitimate and illegitimate sources

“makes the demand for the journalist as referee, watchdog, and

interpreter all the greater”. By the presence of the new way on how

news is consumed and distributed, questions have been raised

about the credibility and reliability of online news. This study

examines how reliable and credible online news for consumers daily

news consumptions.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Online news has made communication much easier and less

expensive. It has attracted many people and has penetrated

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people’s daily lives. The mass media also have accepted the online

news. Almost all forms of traditional media, such as radio,

television, and newspapers have extended their work into this new

field. The online news has significantly influenced modern

journalism. Online media distinguish themselves from traditional

media. Online news allows readers to enjoy quick access on the

daily news content and offer not only texts but also digital images.

Online news can present the most recent information and links to

related news articles from local to international topics. The

interactive features of the online news seemingly imply that online

media have more advantages than traditional media forms. Due to

the relatively free space that it affords for the articulation of news

and views, the Internet has gained a strong following, especially

among news readers. Younger generations now favor online sources

over traditional media when it comes to news consumption (Matsa

and Lu, 2016). Online news websites are able to present news and

disseminate information in a highly engaging and visually attractive

manner by inserting video and audio clips, as well as animated

graphics together with the written news report. However, there

exists the issue of credibility and reliability of news and information

on the Internet. One of the basic characteristics of the Internet is its

free access; anyone, in any place and in anytime can upload any

sort of information without much strong evidence or source.

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Nevertheless, such free access could affect the credibility of online

news as a source of information.

People’s expectations for new types of journalism are driving them

online. It is still uncertain if online news meet people’s expectations,
however many people do rely on it for daily information. Research
has found that online audiences go to news web sites because news
articles from around the world can all be accessed from one place
there is no need to switch between multiple websites to get news
from different countries and news articles from around the world
can all be accessed from one place – there is no need to switch
between multiple websites to get news from different countries.

People must place some reliance on online journalism if they are

using it. Online audiences are surely increasing despite of the fact

that there is a serious concern about misinformation on online

news. If reliability and credibility is an issue, what are the reasons

for increased dependency on online news media? How do readers

evaluate the content of online media? This research was conducted

to examine the credibility and reliability of online media by focusing

on online newspapers. It will provide a better understanding of why

people read online media and how people perceive the information.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The online news credibility and reliability is a major concern

since online users have easy access to abundant sources but also

run the risk of getting false information. Apparently, there is less

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control and gatekeeping on the web than for print publications.

Neither authoritarian governments nor institutions can screen all

the information online due to its nature. Nearly anyone could

publish any news and information online. However, less critical and

uninformed people are more likely to accept an untruth as a truth

(Hernon, 1995). Falsity online is seldom revealed because there is

too much information. The more information is put online, the

chance of discovering misinformation decreases. In addition to that,

most people neither have time to verify its accuracy nor go back to

the same site because the browser may fail to find it again (Calvert,

2001). Individual education is the most plausible way to avoid

getting 6 inaccurate information. Studies suggest the necessity of

new criteria for the online media literacy (Floridi, 1996; Levi, 2000).

At the end of the study the researchers aimed to answer the

following questions:

1. How reliable and credible online news for consumers daily news

consumption

2. If reliability and credibility is an issue, what are the reasons for

increased dependency on online news media?

3. How do readers evaluate the content of online news?

4. Can online readers identify falsity online?

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
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GROUND THEORY

A study using grounded theory is likely to begin with a question,

or even just with the collection of qualitative data. As researchers

review the data collected , repeated ideas, concepts or elements

become apparent, and are tagged with codes, which have been

extracted from data. As more data is collected, and re-reviewed,

codes can be grouped into concepts, and then into categories.

These categories may become the basis for new theory. Thus,

grounded theory is quite different from traditional model of

research, where the researcher chooses an existing theoritical

framework, and only then collects data to show how the theory

does or does not apply to the phenomenon under study.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY

The uses and gratifications theory propounded by Katz in 1970,

is concerned with how people use media for gratification of their

needs. An outcome of Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it

propounds the fact that people choose what they want to see or

read, and the different media compete to satisfy everyone's needs.

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In general researchers have found four kinds of gratifications:

Information - we want to find out about society and the world- we

want to satisfy our curiosity. This would fit the news and

documentaries which both give us a sense that we are learning

about the world.

Personal Identity - we may watch the television in order to look for

models for our behavior. So, for example, we may identify with

characters that we see in a soap. The characters help us to decide

what feel about ourselves and if we agree with their actions and

they succeed we feel better about ourselves.

Integration and Social Interaction - we use the media in order to

find out more about the circumstances of other people. Watching a

show helps us to empathize and sympathize with the lives of others

so that we may even end up thinking of the characters in

programme as friends.

Entertainment - sometimes we simply use the media for enjoyment,

relaxation or just to fill time. Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch

(1974:20) give an oft-cited, classic seven-point précis of the uses

and gratifications tradition. They define uses and gratifications

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studies as "concerned with (1) the social and psychological origins

of (2) needs, which generate (3) expectations of 4) the mass media

or other sources, which lead to (5) differential patterns of media

exposure (or engagement in other activities), resulting in (6) need

gratifications and (7) other consequences, perhaps mostly

unintended ones.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The result of this study would be great benefit of the following:

1. Future Researchers. This study would help other student

researchers who would conduct the same or related topic. It

would help them as their future reference and studies.

2. Students. This study will provide information as they would

know how credible and reliable the online news and helps

them to identify falsity online.

3. Parents. Through this study, it would help parents to know the

credibility and reliability of online news and helps them to

identify falsity online.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

As stated in the general objective, the study focused on how

does faculty members determine whether a certain onlone news is

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credible and reliable. This study only included 100 university of

makati employees specially th faculty members. The study did not

include students from the said university.

Survey was the main tool for gathering the data. The structure

of the questionnaire was designed to cover the variables within the

study.

We the researchers found it difficult to conduct the survey

because of the time availability of faculty members. There were

instances that we have to wait until the class of a certain professor

is finished before we can conduct our survey. The originally

systematic planned sampling was not always followed.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

(WEB)

According to Fredin (1997), conceptualized online news stories

as being truly non-linear documents that "through their invitational

structure may bring a more flexible and profound understanding of

issues than many people are currently able to get as a practical

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matter from existing media" (p. 39). He contended that simply

offering external links in stories was insufficient to satisfy the needs

of online news consumers. He envisioned narratives built in sections

and associated via hypertext that blurred the distinction between

traditional, stand-alone stories offered by news outlets. These

narratives, he called "metastories," would include features such as

on-demand glossaries of frequently referenced names and topics,

and also functions that would allow users to apply their own

summaries to specific story elements. The goal was to allow users

to construct their own stories by choosing the story elements that

interested them.

According to Ketterer (2001), found that news consumers want

more from their online publications than they can get from printed

newspapers. His study found they drew significant value from being

able to follow links in a news story according to their interest. He

concluded that, "participants who had links [in the version of the

story they were exposed to] "spent more time reading and were

better informed than those who did not". He believed this supported

a story model of layered information, where "links provide more

information to those who want it".

Indeed, authors of online journalism textbooks frequently cite

this model for online information, often attributed to the research of

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usability expert Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen (1997b) found that online

readers disliked scrolling and instead preferred background

information relegated to secondary pages. He recommended

authors "make text short without sacrificing depth of content by

splitting the information up into multiple nodes connected by

hypertext links", as for (Nielsen, 1997b).

As De Wolk (2001) suggested, interactivity too is a key attribute

of the online experience. At its simplest, it can take the form of an

e-mail link to the reporter's address, but in more advanced

applications includes live chats, polls, surveys, or discussion board

forums for audience feedback (Deuze, 1999; Schultz, 1999).

Researchers found that, until the beginning of this decade, few

online news sites had interactive functions (Kamerer and Bressers,

1998; Massey & Levy, 1999; Schultz, 1999). Even a few years later,

Greer & Mensing (2004) found that "although interactive features

are significantly more prevalent today than in 1997, the only real

growth in interactivity was the addition of reporters' e-mail

addresses" (p. 109). They found that only 15.9 % of sites featured

had any real-time interactivity and suggested that hosting

successful interactive elements, such as discussion forums,

remained a challenge for many news outlets.

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According to Howard Finberg (2002), they found that the public

has largely accepted digital news as an important source of credible

news. Thirteen percent of the online public saying that Internet

news is their most trusted source of news. However, the ONA

survey also shows that most of the online public surveyed remains

neutral on credibility issues surrounding online news.

As Ruggiero (2004) contends that the professional socialization

and ideology of journalists initially inhibited them from accepting

the Internet as a credible news source, because its emergence

impacted their ability to control the standards of the profession.

Reliance on the Internet has been shown to influence audience

perceptions of Internet credibility (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000). In

contrast, Johnson and Kaye (2002) found that reliance on the

Internet did not significantly influence politically-interested Internet

users’ perceptions of online information credibility. Based on the

aforementioned opinions of online journalists in the Pew Research

Center (2004) study, it seems logical that whether or not one is a

member of the online staff of a daily newspaper would also exert

influence on one’s perceptions of credibility.

Evidently, literature review performed seems to suggest that

credibility is key in news. Today, instead of just being a passive

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recipient of messages, readers or audiences are able to select their

communication channels. When the public (news recipient)

considers a medium to be more credible than other media, they are

also more likely to rely on that medium for information search and

sharing than other media. Therefore, credibility can be suggested as

one of the key factors driving the public to organizations‟ social

media. Journalists‟ perspectives and attitudes towards social

media credibility can be considered pertinent to enhance the

effectiveness of the entire communication management process.

Therefore, this paper believes that without a valid, reliable measure

of social media credibility, successful management of social media

credibility is hardly feasible. Credibility is one of the most significant

concepts theoretically. However, it is one of the most complex

concepts and is not as well understood as it should be. Mehrabi et

al. (2009) measured the concept of credibility to the press and

television with ask a few questions about the credibility of the

media, and has reached a multi-concepts of credibility, namely:

justice, impartiality, accuracy, and to respect people's minds, and

taking into account the public interest, and taking into account

public morality and realism, and the public interest in the ideas of

totalitarianism, and the extent of the editor efficiency.

Azza (2006) has defined the concept of credibility stated that

credibility is a kind of professional, cultural and ethical treatment of

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press material so that where all the dimensions of the subject and

trends raised around it in a balanced way based on the evidence

and accuracy in the presentation of information and separated from

the personal views. The information should be declared clearly and

explicitly and stripped of available passions and special interests

that are consistent with the views of others posed by the newspaper

or writer at another time, or in another place, in the framework of

in-depth and comprehensive (Kiousis, 2001).

The issue of credibility of new media is a pressing issue. Non-

journalists and the wider audiences may accept news posted in

more than one Internet source as credible news. The multiplicity of

sources of news and details, and transportation of more than one

source may help to confirm the event (Bowman and Willis, 2003)

and consequently helped the audience to receive the news as

genuine.

Media audiences and readers have become skeptics in the

information published daily on the Internet. Therefore, those who

provide or publish on the Internet must have a high degree of

credibility to increase the reliability of the information. Interestingly,

some studies have found that online information is more reliable

than other media regardless of certain characteristics, such as the

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freedom of information exchanges and the free flow (Moody, 2011;

Popoola, 2014).

The fact remains; the internet and information also offer an

increased potential error, distorted information, and other forms of

exploitation of information. The new media, and the credibility of

information on the Internet can grow larger with the availability of a

number of characteristics that allow interaction between users and

sources with enhanced credibility. (Cassidy, 2007; Moody, 2011;

Whiting and Williams, 2013; Westerman et al., 2014).

The issue of credibility of new media is a pressing issue. Non-

journalists and the wider audiences may accept news posted in

more than one Internet source as credible news. The multiplicity of

sources of news and details, and transportation of more than one

source may help to confirm the event (Bowman and Willis, 2003)

and consequently helped the audience to receive the news as

genuine. The source or sender of news should practice good ethics

of news reporting (Westerman et al., 2014). This is not the case in

many reporting or such publication (Hovland et al., 1953). The

combination of several types of sources of information is likely to

offer the richness of news and information; however, the public

needs to be protected from bad and unreliable information, and only

presented with credible news.

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SYNTHESIS

Credibility and realibility is hard to define, hard to earn, and

even harder to regain once it is lost.news organizations especially

newspapers have struggled to understand why readers find the

media less and less credible. Or why some news organizations, such

as cable news networks, have a higher credibility rating than older

and more established (and local) news outlets. It is a vexing

problem.

Internet offered the public a whole new, interactive way to

obtain news and information. A question that may plague us for the

next several decades is, “How do the issues of credibility and

reliability play out in the online news environment?”

Survey’s findings should prompt journalists and the public alike

to confront a critical issue: Is there something the media perceives

or knows about the ethics and practices of online news

organizations or operations that the public does not know? Or are

traditional media just being resistant to online news?”

We found that the public has largely accepted digital news as an

important source of credible news.

This lack of strong opinion is where the online news media may

have its greatest opportunity. It is a chance to move those neutral

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views to positive ground. Or, conversely, there is the real danger

that the public will be come critical of some practices and become

as critical of online news as it is of newspapers.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the data gathering methods and research

instruments used by the researchers regarding this study. A type of

data gathering which The researchers provided is a questionnaire

which the respondents were required to rate each factor by

“strongly agree,” “agree,” “neither,” “disagree,” and “strongly

disagree.”

Research Design

Participants of the study

The faculty in the College of Arts and Letters department were

the participants of the study. The researchers particularly chose the

faculty in the College of Arts and Letters department as the

participants of the study since they handled Broadcast Production

students in the University of Makati. The knowledge about the

credibility and reliability of online news is affiliated to Broadcast

Production and is ingrained in their minds which are highly needed

in conducting this study.