ABSTRACT
Credibility of media content may be associated with the increased use of, attention to, and exposure of media content itself. Credibility assessments may have relations with participation and engagement with civic life. This chapter focuses on potential predictors of nonmainstream news media content by nonprofessional sources as well. Research on credibility suggests that consuming media content has an impact on credibility perceptions. Media use has been established as an important factor associated with credibility across all media channels. Media credibility research related to demographic variables exist with men, younger individuals, those with higher levels of education and income, and those with high levels of media consumption holding the most critical views. One aspect of media use is media reliance, which has consistently surfaced as a predictor variable for credibility assessments. In one of the first studies to compare news content across different media platforms, T. J. Johnson and B. K. Kaye investigated how politically interested Web users ascribe credibility ratings.
