The power of conversational writing style: Examining the influence of sourcing and writing style on credibility in community journalism

This article revisits the issue of the credibility of citizen journalism in the context of community news. By unpacking its two major reporting characteristics — sourcing from citizens and conversational writing style — this study contributes to our understanding of what makes citizen journalism trustworthy. A 2 (sourcing: elite vs citizen) × 2 (writing style: conversational vs professional) between-subjects experiment ( N = 311) was conducted in Taiwan in late January 2024. Results showed that conversational writing style was considered more credible and more narratively transported than professional journalistic writing. Besides, media skepticism moderated the relationship between conversational writing style and narrative transportation. This implies that, at least concerning community topics, conversational writing style emerges as the critical factor enabling citizen journalism to win trust among the public. Furthermore, results suggest a need to reconsider the rigid professional journalistic norms in certain settings, as the traditional reporting style creates a distance with readers and may be unsuitable for addressing personal-related or emotionally charged topics such as community news and disaster news.