Perceived Credibility of Chinese Social Media: Toward an Integrated Approach

Using Weblog files and an online survey on Sina Weibo (N = 754), this article (1) empirically examined Chinese social media credibility in validated indexes; (2) compared the credibility of 12 types of media, which yielded three genres: traditional media, Web 1.0, and social media; and (3) explored the predictors of social media credibility. Results indicated SW users rate social media moderately high, especially on its fairness and unbiasedness, rather than accuracy. Comparatively, they trust traditional media most (especially newspaper) and social media least (especially SNS), although social media are more popular and rated fairly credible alone. Users' frequency of traditional media use and social media use, information-seeking motivation, and innovativeness has a positive impact on social media credibility. Reversely, users’ join date, participation, trust inclination, education, and age negatively influence social media credibility.