Online information - credible & reliable?

So how do you judge whether information online is credible and reliable? My dissertation aims to research the level of trust that readers attribute to blogs, and who writes them.

With this in mind I’ve been looking at news, or journalistic values – as a way of providing a scale to judge the various sources of information against.

As far as BBC News is concerned it has five main values: truth, impartiality, inclusivity, fairness and accountability.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association, an organization exclusively centred on electronic journalism, maintains a code of ethics focusing on -- public trust, truthfulness, fairness, integrity, independence and accountability. RTDNA publishes a pocket guide to these standards.

So using these values as a basis, it’s possible to develop a list of semantic differentials – against which readers can judge content online.

Trustworthy … undependable

True … False

Integrity … unsound

Impartial … partisan

Fair … biased

Independent … unfree / partisan

Neutral … aligned

Inclusive … selective / exclusive

Accountable … unanswerable

Accurate … wide of the mark

Sensational … moderate

The idea is that people will complete a questionnaire, and judge information from a variety of sources – PR professional, CEO, journalist and fellow consumer – against these variables.

Matt