SOURCE V CONTENT EFFECTS ON JUDGMENTS OF NEWS BELIEVABILITY

A between-groups 3 x 3 factorial experiment (N=516) tests effects of m essage type and source reputation on judgments of news believability, judgments conceptualized as source credibility (judgments about the so urce), and assessments of apparent reality (judgments about the messag e content). Three indices combining measures of source credibility and message apparent reality emerge from a factor analysis, comprising ju dgments of (1) source truthfulness and message accuracy, (2) source ex pertise and message representativeness, and (3) source bias and person al perspective. The results show that a more innocuous message results in more positive judgments of believability, but the reputation of th e source has no direct effect on believability judgments, nor does it interact with message type. It is concluded that at least some publics base judgments of news believability more on judgments of the apparen t reality of message content rather than on the reputation of the medi a source.