Media Literacy and News Credibility: Does knowledge of media ownership increase skepticism in news consumers?

Abstrak / Ringkasan

This study explores how increased knowledge of media ownership may affect judgments of credibility in
responding to print news. An experiment was conducted with 80 undergraduate journalism students. Subjects
were randomly exposed to either an informational article about the pros and cons of consolidation in media
ownership or poetry. Then subjects read and analyzed four news stories, analyzing each using a credibility scale
that includes judgments of truth, superficiality, general accuracy and completeness. Results show statistically
significant differences in judgments of general accuracy and superficiality, suggesting that exposure to informational
print about media ownership may promote modest increases in critical responses to news media.

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