Open AccessCredibility of Social Network Sites for Political Information Among Politically Interested Internet Users
Author(s) -
Johnson Thomas J.,
Kaye Barbara K.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/jcc4.12084
Subject(s) - credibility , politics , the internet , source credibility , political science , social network (sociolinguistics) , internet privacy , social media , fake news , public relations , sustainability , computer science , world wide web , law , ecology , biology
Scholars have confirmed that political candidates are increasingly turning to social network sites (SNS) to persuade voters to vote for them, and that these sites have become prominent sources of political information. But a fundamental question arises about the sustainability of social networks as a campaign tool: How much do users trust the information they find there? This study employed an online survey to examine the degree to which politically interested online users view SNS as credible. SNS were ranked the least credible among the nine traditional and online sources examined. Reliance on social networks proved the strongest predictor of SNS credibility.