Information Literacy on the Web: How College Students Use Visual and Textual Cues to Assess Credibility on Health Websites

Abstract

One of the most important literacy skills in today's information society is the ability to determine the credibility of online information. Users sort through a staggering number of websites while discerning which will provide satisfactory information. In this study, 70 college students assessed the credibility of health websites with a low and high design quality in either low or high credibility groups. The study's purpose was to understand if students relied more on textual or visual cues in determining credibility and to understand if this affected their recall of those cues later. The results indicate that when viewing a high credibility website, high design quality will bolster the credibility perception, but design quality will not compensate for a low credibility website. The recall test also indicated that credibility does impact the participants' recall of visual and textual cues. Implications are discussed in light of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. [ARTICLE]Pariera: Information Literacy on the Web: How College Students Use Visual

News Media Use and Cognitive Elaboration. The Mediating Role of Media Efficacy

“…Studies have shown strong support for the claim of individuals' media perceptions affecting their information processing, such as the scholarship on source credibility (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984;Trumbo & McComas, 2003;Pareira, 2012). Petty and Cacioppo (1984) suggested that perceptions such as source credibility could guide one's information processing path.…”

“…An empirical study conducted by Trumbo and McComas (2003) found that high credibility tends to promote heuristic processing while low credibility promotes greater systematic processing. More recently, Pareira (2012) found that the information processing path triggered by one's media perception influences the quality of cognitive outcome. In an experiment, students were able to recall content better from websites they deemed as highly credible compared to those that were not (Pareira, 2012).…”

“…More recently, Pareira (2012) found that the information processing path triggered by one's media perception influences the quality of cognitive outcome. In an experiment, students were able to recall content better from websites they deemed as highly credible compared to those that were not (Pareira, 2012). These studies on media credibility suggest that the perception of a news medium or the impression one has about a particular medium influences cognitive processing (Ardèvol-Abreu, Hooker y Gil de Zúñiga, 2017).…”

El uso de los medios de comunicación y la elaboración cognitiva: El papel mediador de la eficacia mediática

“…Los estudios han encontrado fuerte evidencia de que las percepciones que los individuos tienen de los medios de comunicación afectan el procesamiento de la información, como los estudios en la credibilidad de la fuente (Petty y Cacioppo, 1984;Trumbo y McComas, 2003;Pareira, 2012). Petty y Cacioppo (1984) sugieren que las percepciones como la credibilidad de la fuente podrían guiar la ruta de procesamiento de información.…”

“…Más recientemente, Pareira (2012) encontró que la ruta de procesamiento de información provocada por la percepción de los medios de comunicación influye en la calidad del resultado cognitivo. En un experimento, los estudiantes fueron capaces de recordar mejor el contenido de los sitios web que eran considerados como altamente creíbles en comparación con aquellos que no lo eran (Pareira, 2012). Estos estudios sobre credibilidad de los medios de comunicación sugieren que la percepción de la gente de un medio noticioso o la impresión sobre un determinado medio influye en el procesamiento cognitivo (Ardèvol-Abreu, Hooker y Gil de Zúñiga, 2017).…”