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How do users rate the journalistic quality of different formats and services on the internet? To answer this question a survey was conducted in which 1000 German internet users evaluated 11 formats and services. The participants were recruited through an online panel and were matched with the general distribution of the population with respect to age, gender, and education level. In summary, the results show that internet users perceive distinct differences between formats and services and in most cases prefer professional journalism. Therefore, it is unlikely that competition exists between journalism, social media, and news search engines. The majority of the respondents believed that press websites best embodied features such as credibility, regular reporting, and timeliness. Although Wikipedia, television station websites, and radio station websites received fewer top votes, they were still rated significantly higher than all other services. Users still perceive professional journalism in the traditional gatekeeper and agenda-setting role. However, if users are actively in search of specific information or reports about special areas of interest, they prefer news search engines and Wikipedia. News search engines and portals with news are especially well suited for orienting users on the internet and the spontaneous discovery of interesting topics.
Christoph Neuberger (Mon,) studied this question.