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Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Interacting is believing? Examining bottom-Up credibility of blogs among politically interested Internet users Daekyung Kim Department of Mass Communication, Idaho State University, USA

This study examines how politically interested Internet users perceive blogs as a credible source of news and information. More specifically, this study aims to identify a new possible factor that has a moderating impact on blog credibility assessment in the collaborative nature of digital media circumstances. This study found that blog credibility was predicted by the interaction between blog reliance and online news activity, indicating that those who more actively interact with news and with other users judge blogs as more credible than those who do less so. Implications of the findings were discussed for future research. Key words: Political Blogs, Bottom-Up Credibility, Politically Interested Internet Users, Interactivity, Online Activity. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01583.x

As more people are getting online to obtain news and information, the means by which people assess information they find on the Internet drew a great deal of attention from media researchers (Metzger, Flanagin, Eyal, Lemus, & McCann, 2003). There is little doubt that the Internet has become an important source of news and information. The 2008 Digital Future Report found that 80% of Internet adult users considered the Internet to be a more important source of information than television (68%), radio (63%), and newspapers (63%) (Center for the Digital Future, 2008). However, the World Internet Project in 2009 also reported that a large majority of Internet users around the world said that only half or less of the information they found was reliable (Center for the Digital Future, 2009). Many studies have therefore examined to understand how people judge online news sources compared to traditional ones as well as investigating possible factors that influence credibility on the Internet as a new channel of information delivery. However, past studies have produced mixed results about the Internet as a credible source of news and information (Johnson & Kaye, 2009). Further, relatively little attention has been paid to exploring new factors influencing online media credibility, which should differ from traditional media counterparts. The present study is an extension of online credibility studies by Johnson and Kaye (1998; 2000) designed to examine the impact of interactivity on online information credibility. In recent years, blogs have drawn considerable attention from media scholars and practitioners alike as a new channel to deliver information as well as a new form of journalism on the Internet (Matheson, 2004). More specifically, blogs emerged as a major source for political information during the 2004 and 422

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17 (2012) 422–435 © 2012 International Communication Association

2008 U.S. presidential elections (Graf & Darr, 2004; Smith, 2009). Indeed, many online political users obtained campaign news from alternative news sources, including political issue-oriented Web sites and blogs (Rainie, Cornfield, & Horrigan, 2005; Smith, 2009). Amid the growing popularity of the use of blogs for political information, this exploratory study specifically examines the degree to which politically interested Internet users perceive blogs as believable, fair, accurate, and in-depth. In addition, this study aims to find a new factor, the interactive activity of online users, which may play a moderating role in blog credibility assessment, based on findings of an online survey. By doing so, it is hoped that this study makes contributions to understanding how people assess and evaluate news and information differently in the age of digital media.

Literature review: Online media credibility Since the advent of the Internet as a new channel of news and information production and delivery in the mid-1990s, many scholars over the last decade have grappled with examining credibility of the Internet and its components compared with traditional media (Metzger et al., 2003) and found ‘wild fluctuations’ in how people assessed the Internet as credible, depending on how Internet credibility was measured (Johnson & Kaye, 2009). For example, Flanagin and Metzger (2000) found that the Internet was as credible as television, radio, and magazines, but not as credible as newspapers, while other studies revealed that online news media were found to be more credible than traditional print and broadcast media (Johnson & Kaye, 1998, 2000). Recently, blogs have drawn great interest from media scholars as an influential source for news and information (Johnson & Kaye, 2004b, 2006; Johnson, Kaye, Bichard, & Wong, 2008; Matheson, 2004; Trammell & Keshelashvili, 2005). In particular, some researchers investigated how credible people perceived blogs to be in comparison with traditional media. Banning and Sweetser (2007) found no significant difference between traditional media and blogs in credibility and concluded ‘‘blogs achieved a credibility standing in line with traditional media’’ (p. 462). Further, other researchers found that Internet users viewed blogs as more credible than traditional news media (Johnson & Kaye, 2006, 2004b; Johnson et al., 2008). Blog users are more attracted to in-depth information and perspectives not covered by traditional news media. Blogs may be rated as credible because users view blogs as being independent from traditional big and cooperated-controlled media (Andrews, 2003; Singer, 2006). In other words, people may judge blogs as credible sources because the open network of the blogosphere can allow for more open and in-depth discussion with different perspectives than the traditional news media (Bruns, 2006; Lasica, 2002). Those mixed findings about the credibility of the Internet and other online components as a new source of news and information call for investigating new potential factors that may either mediate or moderate people’s credibility assessment across messages and sources on the Internet (Kaid & Postelnicu, 2007). Despite the intensive research, most of the past credibility studies on the Internet did not provide a strong argument for why people assess online information as more (or less) credible. Accordingly, this study pays special attention to the unique nature of the blogosphere that makes it possible for users to actively participate and engage in the process of information production and distribution, which may in turn lead to an increased degree of blog credibility in newly emerging information and communication circumstances. Participatory Journalism and Bottom-Up Credibility It is quite obvious that traditional media and journalism are undergoing a revolutionary change because of the Internet and related information and communication technologies. Such interactive digital technologies empower ordinary people who were once considered passive audiences and make it Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17 (2012) 422–435 © 2012 International Communication Association

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possible for them to be active participants and collaborators in the process of production, distribution, and consumption of news and information (Bowman & Willis, 2003; Deuze, Bruns, & Neuberger, 2007). Thus, the advance of digital technology not only redefines journalism in the digital age but it also transforms the practices and ethics of traditional journalism (Niles, 2009; Pavlik, 2000). Traditional media and reporters are no longer the only single entity producing and delivering news and information in particular on the Internet’s online world. For example, citizen-based participatory journalism provides a big challenge to traditional news business in that it requires traditional media to view audiences as partners and collaborators (Bowman & Willis, 2003; Gillmor, 2004). The significance of citizen-produced blogs is more important in terms of their capacity for independent and alternative news reporting. Gillmor (2004) contended that in contrast with mainstream big media’s centralized and top-down approach to news reporting, blogs can offer a decentralized and bottom-up approach through linking to and commentary from a wide range of different sources. Thus, blogs were in some ways viewed as a new form of journalism, which provides an open platform yet is not strictly confined by practices and standards of traditional journalism (Bowman & Willis, 2003; Bruns, 2006; Lasica, 2002). Defined as ‘‘the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information’’ (Bowman & Willis, 2003, p. 9), participatory journalism is primarily characterized by a bottom-up process and collaborative nature in the process of news gathering, selecting, and producing on the Internet (Deuze et al., 2007). The networked and collaborative nature of online journalism calls for a rethinking of how people perceive news and information as reliable and credible. It is of particular importance to understand how people assess or perceive information in today’s highly competitive information market because people would not rely on the media that they do not believe as credible (Johnson & Kaye, 1998; Metzger et al., 2003). Thus, it is more likely that a credibility issue is a matter of how to survive in a new digital media environment where users can hold more power and choice in news selection. Gillmor (2004) pointed out that given the growing concern about the distrust in traditional media, objective journalism cannot solve the problem without creating a new reputation system. Traditional media have already begun capitalizing on the initiatives of the digital media landscape, allowing users to participate in the journalistic process. For example, the New York Times (2005) in an internal committee report recommended reporters to actively interact with their audiences to increase credibility through a number of online interactive tools such as e-mail, blogs, and so on. According to a recent report, reporters in 92 of top 100 newspaper Web sites have their own blogs and allow readers to post comments on their blogs (The Bivings Group, 2008). In traditional mass media, trust can be built in a top-down way because people rely mainly upon sources or messages of big media organizations. However, the credibility of news in participatory forms of journalism can be assessed through a bottom-up process, meaning that trust is built through links and interaction with peers. (Bowman & Willis, 2003). Pavlik (2000) argued that advances in digital technology created a new relationship between information sources and receivers, so that credibility of news media should be re-established. Because of the lack of gatekeeping on the Internet, it is more likely that ordinary people get involved in the process of credibility verification. As Bowman and Willis (2003) pointed out, how people perceive and assess information as reliable, credible, and trustworthy should be redefined in a way in which they play a more important role in the collaborative process of information production and distribution. Therefore, some researchers have become interested in how the interactive nature of the Internet technology was related to how people perceive online media. For example, Chung (2008) examined to what extent online users utilized interactive features provided by online newspapers and found that perceived credibility of online news was significantly associated with use of such interactive features. 424


Based on the findings, the study suggested that ‘‘online newspapers may seek to educate their online audiences about how to use various interactive features on their sites and also make efforts to build their reputation for credible news’’ (p. 674). As mentioned above, this study aims to examine how people assess political blogs and if perceived credibility is related to the ways in which they interact with news and other users in the digital media landscape. The assumption of this study is that the more interaction with news and other users, the higher people evaluate online information as credible. In other words, active audience participation in the process of information production and distribution may have a positive impact on their perception toward information sources, which would offer more insights into how people perceive and evaluate information online (Kim & Johnson, 2009). Thus, the following research question is posed: RQ1: To what extent do politically interested Internet users judge blogs to be credible sources of news and information?

Factors Affecting Credibility of Political Blogs In general, findings of past credibility studies suggest that media experiences have impacts on how credible people judge information they find from the media to be, because more experienced users are better able to determine the quality and reliability of information (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000; Rimmer & Weaver, 1987). For example, Flanagin and Metzger (2000) found that Internet experiences, such as Internet use and access, expertise and familiarity, predicted online credibility. Johnson and Kaye (1998; 2000) also found that reliance on online media was a strong predictor of credibility of online sources. Reliance on blogs was a strong predictor of blog credibility (Johnson & Kaye, 2009; Johnson et al., 2008). Given that online users are more politically interested and active, but have a low level of trust in government, Johnson and Kaye (1998, 2000) found a weak relationship between political attitudes and online credibility. However, the political variables became stronger predictors as Internet users became more politically mainstream. Indeed, political interest was related to credibility of online sources, indicating that those interested in politics may view online information as credible because they can access a wider variety of information sources online than traditional media (Johnson & Kaye, 2000). Individual motivations for using media also played an important role in predicting perceptions of online credibility. Johnson and associates (2008) found that motivations predicted blog credibility even after controlling for demographics and political variables. Further, they found that information-seeking motives for accessing blogs were more predictive of blog credibility than entertainment motives. Understanding the collaborative nature of the blogosphere, this study aims to explore a new possible factor that influences blog credibility assessment because as Wathen and Burkell (2002) said, it is critical to understand how new communication media can introduce new factors into credibility assessment. Banning and Sweetser (2007) argued that despite some studies’ findings blogs as more credible than traditional sources (e.g., Johnson & Kaye, 2004a; Johnson et al., 2008), a more systematic study should be conducted in a way that different elements of media types may determine credibility. They concluded that individuals’ perceptions of credibility may be contingent upon the different elements of media types. In short, the networked, collaborative nature of online news environments can make it possible for people to engage in a multitude of activities in pursuit of news and information. Thus, this study is based on the notion that credibility of blogs can be built in a bottom-up way in which individuals’ online activities have an influence on their credibility judgments of blogs. More specifically, this study attempts to extend Johnson and Kaye’s studies (1998; 2000) by introducing interactivity as a new variable in the study of credibility of online sources. Thus, the present study advances the following two hypotheses:


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H1: Reliance on blogs will significantly predict perceived credibility of blogs after controlling for demographics, political variables, and Internet use. H2: The impact of blog reliance on credibility of blogs will be moderated by online activity.

Method Data Collection The data analysis was based on an online survey of 338 politically interested Internet users from November 15, 2005 to February 28, 2006. To recruit politically interested Internet users with various political viewpoints, notices of the survey were posted on a wide range of Web sites such as portal news sites, political blogs, online political groups, politically oriented newsgroups, and political chat or discussion rooms maintained by three major portals such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Google (See Appendix). In addition, announcements of the online survey were posted on 26 political blogs including 13 conservative leaning and 13 liberal leaning blogs, which were adapted from top 40 political blogs of a past political blog study (Adamic & Glance, 2005). The top 40 political blogs were selected on the basis of page link counts obtained from BlogPluse’s index (www.blogpulse.com/search). Survey responses were returned as data files, containing the date and time of receipt as well as the respondents’ Internet server and e-mail addresses, which were all used to remove duplicate responses. Variable Measurements Blog use and credibility First, respondents were asked to report how much they rely on blogs for political news and information on a 5-point scale ranging from 5 (heavily rely) to 1 (do not rely at all). Credibility as a multidimensional construct was drawn from past studies (Johnson & Kaye, 1998; 2000). Respondents were asked to rate the degree of believability, fairness, accuracy, and in-depthness of blogs based on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very). Scores for the four measures of credibility were combined into a credibility index for political blogs. (Cronbach’s alpha = .869). Political attitudes In order to measure political attitudes, this study employed political involvement, political interest, trust in the government, political efficacy, and strength of party affiliation (Johnson & Kaye, 1998; 2000). Respondents were asked to report the degree to which they had become involved in politics since first accessing the Internet on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (greatly decreased) to 5 (greatly increased). Respondents were also asked to indicate their level of political interest on a 10-point scale where 1 was ‘‘the lowest level’’ and 10 was ‘‘the highest level.’’ As for trust in the government, respondents were asked to indicate their agreement on three statements on a 5-point scale from ‘‘strongly disagree (1)’’ to ‘‘strongly agree (5)’’: (1) Most of our leaders are devoted to the service of our country, (2) Politicians never tell us what they really think, and (3) I do not think public officials care much about what people like me think (Cronbach’s alpha = .779). Similarly, three statements were used to measure political self-efficacy: (1) People like me do not have any say about what the government does, (2) Every vote counts in an election, including yours and mine, (3) Sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person like me cannot really understand what is going on (Cronbach’s alpha = .409). Respondents were asked to indicate the degree of their agreement on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to 5 ‘‘strongly agree’’ (Johnson & Kaye, 2000, 2009). 426


Participants were also asked to report whether they consider themselves a ‘‘strong Democrat,’’ ‘‘lean toward Democrat,’’ ‘‘independent,’’ ‘‘strong Republican,’’ ‘‘lean toward Republican,’’ or ‘‘other.’’ The responses were then recoded into ‘‘strong partisan’’ (strong Democrat and strong Republican combined), ‘‘weak partisan’’ (weak Democrat and weak Republican combined), ‘‘independent,’’ and ‘‘other.’’

Internet use As for Internet use, respondents were asked to report the number of years they have been online and the amount of time spend per week with the Internet in general. Then, respondents were asked how much time per week on average they spent on the Internet to get news with an open-ended question. Online activities Online activities were measured by asking how respondents interact with news content and other users while surfing the Internet for news. The use of interactive components of online news is divided into content and interpersonal interactivities. Content interactivity can be defined as the interactive activities of online users to have control over delivery, selection, and presentation of online news, while interpersonal interactivity is person-to-person communications mediated by interactive applicants in both synchronous and asynchronous ways (Bucy, 2004). In this study, the interactive use of online news was measured through an 11-item additive index of online poll, hyperlinks, archives, newsgathering programs (RSS), subscribing to e-mail newsletters, using personalized news service (e.g., My Yahoo!), download of multimedia news (content interactivity), e-mailing news to friends or family, responding to reporters or editors, engaging in discussion or chat rooms, posting on bulletin boards or Weblogs (interpersonal activity). Respondents were asked to indicate how often they used those interactive components while reading or viewing online news, based on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). The score of each item was combined into an interactive index of online activity (Cronbach’s alpha = .771). Demographics Traditional measures of demographic variables were measured in this study. Respondents were asked to report gender, age, household income, and education level. Data Analysis Frequency analysis first was used for all independent variables such as demographics, political attitudes, Internet news use, online activities, and reliance on blogs. Hierarchical regressions were used to examine if the independent variables predicted credibility of blogs. The predictors were entered as a block. First, demographics were entered, followed by political attitudes and Internet use variables. Blog reliance was entered as a fourth block, followed by online activities. Finally, interaction between blog reliance and online activities was entered. Results Respondent Profile Of 338 respondents who completed the online survey, almost seven in 10 (68.6%) are males and an average age is 44 years old (SD = 12.5). More than nine in 10 (96.1%) have some college education, a college degree or higher. A large majority of the respondents (87.0%) are white and more than 6 in 10 (63.3%) report a middle or high level of household income. On average they have used the Internet for Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17 (2012) 422–435 © 2012 International Communication Association

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Table 1 Interactive Use of Online News M (SD) Content Interactivity Clicking on hyperlinked news articles Searching for archives Participating in online polls Download sound or video news files Using personalized news Subscribing to email newsletters Using newsgathering programs Subtotal Interpersonal Interactivity Posting on bulletin board or Weblogs Emailing news to friends or family Engaging in discussion or chat rooms Responding to reporters or editors Subtotal Total

4.08 (.76) 3.53 (.95) 3.07 (.95) 2.80 (1.16) 2.38 (1.33) 2.35 (1.34) 2.23 (1.35) 2.92 (.68) 3.45 (1.33) 3.15 (1.25) 3.10 (1.38) 2.61 (1.15) 3.08 (.91) 2.98 (.66)

more than 9 years, spending an average of 27 hours and 47 minutes a week with online news and 14 hours, 4 minutes a week spent with online political news. A majority of the respondents (76.9%) report an increase in political involvement since first accessing the Internet, and more 96.1% of them are interested or very interested in politics. While almost three quarters (74.0%) of the respondents show low to moderate levels of trust in the government, 85.6% of them claim moderate to high levels of political efficacy.

Interactive Use of Online News Table 1 shows that politically interested Internet users are involved with various interactive components while surfing online news. They use interpersonal components of online news (M = 3.08) more often than content components of online news (M = 2.92). They most often used hyperlinked news for additional information (M = 4.08), followed by archives (M = 3.53) and participation in online polls (M = 3.07) from content components of online news. Of the interpersonal components, respondents most often use bulletin boards or blogs to post their opinions (M = 3.45), followed by emailing news to friends or family (M = 3.15). Blogs Use and Credibility The research question asked how credible politically interested Internet users perceived political blogs to be. It was found that more than seven in 10 respondents in this study (74.3%) report that they rely or rely heavily on blogs for political news and information (M = 3.88, SD = 1.20). The score of combined index of blog credibility is 3.74 based on a 5-point scale. As shown in Table 2, a greater percentage of respondents rate blogs as credible because of in-depthness rather than believability, fairness, and accuracy. Predictors of Credibility for Blogs The first hypothesis in this study asked if reliance on blogs has an impact on credibility of blogs. As Table 3 shows, political involvement was a significant predictor of blog credibility (β = .14, p < .01), and 428


Table 2 Perceptions of Credibility of Blogs Blog Credibility (N = 338) Not at all/not very Somewhat Moderately/very

Believability

Fairness

Accuracy

In-depth

3.73 6.2% 34.6% 57.3%

3.38 16.6% 31.4% 45.8%

3.68 6.5% 38.5% 52.9%

4.18 4.7% 17.8% 75.1%

Index of blog credibility = 3.74 (SD = .83) none of the Internet use variables was significant. Consistent with the past studies, reliance on blogs has a significant relationship with credibility (β = .35, p < .001), even after controlling for demographics, political variables, and Internet use. Therefore, H1 was supported. However, there was no main effect of online activity on blog credibility. The second hypothesis addressed whether the effect of blog reliance on blog credibility is moderated by online activities. That is, it was hypothesized that politically interested Internet users who are more actively interacting with blog content and with other users are more likely to evaluate blogs as credible sources. Table 3 shows that there is a significant relationship between the interaction terms and blog credibility (β = .23, p < .001), indicating that blogs users with a higher level of online activities are more likely to perceive information in the blogosphere as more credible than those with a lower level of online activities. H2 therefore was also supported.

Discussion and Conclusions With the increasing use of the Internet for news and information, it is becoming more important to understand how people perceive and evaluate information on the Internet (Johnson & Kaye, 2000; Metzger et al., 2003). Recently, blogs drew considerable interest from media researchers as one of the important sources of political news and information (Johnson et al., 2008; Matheson, 2004; Trammell & Keshelashvili, 2005). This study therefore examined how credible politically interested Internet users perceive blogs as a new source of news and information. More specifically, this exploratory study attempts to identify a new possible factor that has a moderating impact on blog credibility assessment under the newly evolving nature of online media landscape. Under the networked, collaborative nature of online journalism in which audience members become active partners and collaborators in the process of news production and distribution, a new reputation system can be established in a bottom-up process (Bowman & Willis, 2003; Gillmor, 2004; Pavlik, 2000). Thus, it was hypothesized in this study that individuals who are interacting more with news content and other users through various interactive features on the Internet are more likely to perceive online information as credible. First, this study found that politically interested Internet users judge blogs as moderately credible, scoring 3.74 out of a 5-point scale. The finding is similar to that of the past studies that found blogs as a credible source of news and information (Johnson & Kaye, 2004b, 2009; Johnson et al., 2008). To be more specific, respondents in this study perceived political blogs as credible because political blogs provided more in-depth information than fair or accurate information, which may reflect the independent and alternative nature of blogs (Bruns, 2006; Johnson & Kaye, 2006; Singer, 2006). The finding also indicates that online users look forward to more in-depth commentary or analysis from blogs as a credible source rather than fairness or accuracy, which are two fundamental criteria in judging credible news via traditional news media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17 (2012) 422–435 © 2012 International Communication Association

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Table 3 Hierarchical Regression of Predicting Blog Credibility (Blog Reliance x Online Activity) Before Beta Entry Age Gender Education Income Incremental R2 (%) Predispositions (6) Political Interest Political Involvement Party Strength Trust in Government Political Efficacy Incremental R2 (%) Internet Use (3) Years on the Internet Internet Use Time Internet Political News Use Time Incremental R2 (%) Blog Reliance (1) Blog Reliance Incremental R2 (%) Online Activities (1) Online Activities Incremental R2 (%) Interaction (1) Blog Reliance x Online Activities Incremental R2 (%) Total R2 (%)

Final Beta .03 −.01 −.10 .06

1.0 .02 .13* .09 .03 −.15* 6.2**

.07 .14** .10 .02 −.12

−.07 −.01 .00 .8

−.08 .02 −.01

.35*** 10.8*** −.07 .4

.35***

−.10

.23*** 5.0*** 24.3

Note: ** p