In the new media environment, hard news stories are no longer found solely in the "A" section of the paper or on the front page of a news Web site. They are now distributed widely, appearing in contexts as disparate as a partisan blog or your own e-mail inbox, forwarded by a friend. In this study, we investigate how the credibility of a news story is affected by the context in which it appears. Results of an experiment show a news story embedded in an uncivil partisan blog post appears more credible in contrast. Specifically, a blogger's incivility highlights the relative credibility of the newspaper article. We also find that incivility and partisan disagreement in an adjacent blog post produce stronger correlations between ratings of news and blog credibility. These findings suggest that news story credibility is affected by context and that these context effects can have surprising benefits for news organizations. Findings are consistent with predictions of social judgment theory. Notes 1This 2 × 2 design was extracted from a larger experimental design. The full design included a third manipulation related to the structure of the blog post. This variable did not interact with the civility or congruence manipulation and is included in the analysis only as a statistical control. 2Preliminary analyses of demographic information revealed that participant gender and party affiliation were also correlated with news credibility ratings. However, including gender and party as controls in the analysis did not substantively change the results reported next. 3On the questionnaire, the set of items measuring news credibility was asked first, followed by the block of items evaluating blog credibility. 4We thank an anonymous reviewer for leading us to this study. 5We thank an anonymous reviewer for offering this suggestion. Additional informationNotes on contributorsKjerstin Thorson Kjerstin Thorson is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the role of digital media in political persuasion and the mobilization of young citizens. Emily Vraga Emily Vraga is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include the implications of new media formats and the influence of audience predispositions on news processing. Brian Ekdale Brian Ekdale is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include new media and international mass communication.
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Thorson et al. (2010) studied this question.