Audience Credibility on TV News Channels: A Case Study of Geo & ARY News Channels

The boom of Pakistani channels started after the PEMRA issued licenses to many private channels and later on questions were raised on the credibility of Pakistani news media. Measuring the audience’s credibility on the news channels is the most important aspect as credibility is said to be the backbone of the entire media system. The credibility of news channels is becoming an increasingly important area to understand, to expand knowledge in this domain, a survey study was conducted out that investigated people’s perception of the credibility of two news channels namely ARY News and Geo News. The research explores the perception of the news audiences on the credibility of the news channels. A survey is administered with the help of a convenience sampling technique and a selected sample of 200 audiences from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. The researcher assessed the credibility perception of the audiences toward the two news media channels: ARY News and Geo News. The credibility is measured with the help of two different components: source and medium. To measure these constructs a 12-scale factor developed by Gaziano and McGrath (1986) with additions from Infante (1980) and Jacobson (2012) is incorporated. The findings suggested that the audience perceived the credibility of a source in a different way whereas both channels as a medium are perceived to be similar. The data showed the negative linkage between age, gender, education, occupation, and the news media channel’s credibility but shows the positive relationship between political affiliation and credibility perception of the news channels.