Sacrificing Credibility for Sleaze: Mainstream Media's Use of Tabloidization

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Author(s): Jenn Burleson Mackay (Virginia Tech, USA)and Erica Bailey (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Copyright: 2016
Pages: 16
Source title: Web Design and Development: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Information Resources Management Association (USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8619-9.ch057

Keywords: Computer Science & IT / Information Science Reference / Web Technologies / Web Technologies & Engineering

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Abstract

This chapter uses an experiment to analyze how mainstream journalists' use of sensationalized or tabloid-style writing techniques affect the credibility of online news. Participants read four news stories and rated their credibility using McCroskey's Source Credibility Scale. Participants found stories written with a tabloid style less credible than more traditional stories. Soft news stories written with a tabloidized style were rated more credible than hard news stories that also had a tabloidized style. Results suggest that online news media may damage their credibility by using tabloidized writing techniques to increase readership. Furthermore, participants were less likely to enjoy stories written in a tabloidized style. The authors conclude by utilizing act utilitarianism to argue that tabloidized writing is an unethical journalistic technique.

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Sacrificing Credibility for Sleaze: Mainstream Media's Use of Tabloidization

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