Signaling News Outlet Credibility in a Google Search

Abstract

This study extends the literature on how transparency influences news credibility perceptions by examining trust signals at the news outlet level, rather than at the story level, as earlier research has done. Experiments in the United States ( n = 1,037) and Germany ( n = 1,000) found that exposure to trust signals in a Google search about a known news brand, rather than an unknown brand, and the German cultural context increased news credibility perceptions. Participants were more likely to click on trust signals that gave background about the news brand or offered ways to engage with a news outlet.

Mapping Media Developments and Issues: Topics, Clusters, and Content of JMCQ Articles on Communication Technology/Media Channels, 1935–2017

“…Artificial intelligence -based algorithmic bias and filtering in media can foster discrimination, distortion, and low accountability (Shin et al, 2022). German audiences allocate different figurations of trust across digital news media and peers (Mangold et al, 2022), and how trust signals in Google search results influence perceptions of news credibility (Masullo et al, 2022). Black Instagram use is related to activism orientation and identity ideology (Li, 2022).…”

Shortcuts to trust: Relying on cues to judge online news from unfamiliar sources on digital platforms

“…Such research has focused on how audiences cope with sociotechnical changes in the media environment, such as unprecedented information abundance (Metzger et al, 2010; Sundar, 2008). However, journalism scholarship has generally paid less attention to heuristics in how audiences judge the trustworthiness of news (important exceptions include Masullo et al, 2021; Peacock et al, 2020). In part, this may be because journalism research has increasingly shifted its attention away from credibility and toward trust.…”

Signaling news outlet trust in a Google Knowledge Panel: A conjoint experiment in Brazil, Germany, and the United States

“…All of the aforementioned studies manipulated some type of journalistic transparency at the news story level by embedding information about the news outlet or the reporting process within or near the story itself. One experimental study (Masullo et al, 2021b), however, took a different tack by examining journalistic transparency at the domain level, or the level of the overall news outlet. In that study, a mock Google Knowledge Panel was created, and the experiment in Germany and the United States varied 14 pieces of information about a news outlet grouped into three major transparency signals in that Knowledge Panel.…”

“…In that study, a mock Google Knowledge Panel was created, and the experiment in Germany and the United States varied 14 pieces of information about a news outlet grouped into three major transparency signals in that Knowledge Panel. These were background about the news brand, which included items such as information about ownership and newsroom policies; audience engagement, which showed journalists' bios and provided contact information for them; and external evaluation, which consisted of awards and reviews by outside groups (Masullo et al, 2021b). The effect of each of the three signals individually and collectively was tested to see whether they increased perceptions of trust in the news outlet, but none did (Masullo et al, 2021b).…”

“…In the current study, we varied seven pieces of information about a news outlet in a functional replica of a Google Knowledge Panel. To decide which seven to consider, we adopted signals from the earlier study (Masullo et al, 2021b) that were based on research. We provide some details of the signals here to aid in understanding our research questions, but more specifics are in the "Method" section.…”