Where do you get your news and how do you measure the credibility of your news source?
Sometimes I get my news from the paper – the DTH at school, the Charlotte Observer at home. I read the paper either when I happen to see an interesting article or when I’m searching for the most detailed and factual report. I tend to view the paper as the most credible news source because it seems that to get something in print, and to distribute it to thousands of people, the facts in the paper will be checked very thoroughly. Whether it’s true or not, it seems like it would be easier to publish incorrect information online – like it wouldn’t have to go through an editing process as meticulous as the paper would. Another difference with online news sources is that they’re not delivering their articles to your door. The delivery of newspapers makes me feel like the paper companies must be very sure about what they’ve published if they’re going to urge us so strongly to read it. These same things are true for television in my mind for the most part, because broadcasting news, especially on the major networks, obviously has a major impact. This makes me think that the news stations will make sure their reports are legitimate. However, I still find newspapers more credible than TV reports because I think newspapers typically have more time to get their stories straight before they’re published, while the news on TV is usually expected to be the most up-to-date and given less time.
The reputation of a news source also plays a big role in the credibility I give to a certain source. Tabloids, for example, probably have a low credibility in everyone’s mind because they’re known to publish speculation as fact, to exaggerate, and to try to cause controversy. Smaller newspapers that haven’t built a reputation for being honest and thorough in their reporting yet would not have as much credibility in my mind as the larger, older papers.
I often get my news from other people. Word of mouth is a really fast way to spread news, but it’s not very credible. My experience with the people I’m hearing news from – how often they’ve been incorrect in information they have stated as fact and how often they tend to exaggerate – determines how valid I will consider their information. Getting information by word of mouth tends to be a pretty inaccurate news source because people like to get reactions from people and most people love to be the news-bearer. As a result, people often say things are true before they have enough evidence to be sure and they exaggerate in order to get greater reactions from others. In all, I think news published in print is the most credible.
