Media Credibility — Experience or Image?

In Germany the World Wide Web is at an earlier stage of development than in the US. In the spring of 1999 about 17.7 percent of the German population used the web or other online services. The article looks at how the 10 percent of online users and 90 percent of non-users rate the credibility of the new medium, and how their attitudes, stemming from different sources — own experience vs media coverage and personal narrations — differ. A survey of 540 respondents carried out in summer 1998 found that German users and non-users rate the credibility of the web as remarkably similar to television and newspapers. Nevertheless, there are some differences. The article shows that the credibility of the web, as one factor of diffusion, is seen as quite positive, but television and newspapers are still in front in Germany.