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

View Sample PDF

Author(s): Jenn Burleson Mackay (Virginia Tech, USA)and Erica Bailey (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 16
Source title: Evolving Issues Surrounding Technoethics and Society in the Digital Age
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Rocci Luppicini (University of Ottawa, Canada)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6122-6.ch007

Keywords: Ethics & Law / Human Aspects of Technology / Information Science Reference / Security & Forensics

Purchase

View Sacrificing Credibility for Sleaze: Mainstream Media's Use of Tabloidization on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

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.

The IRMA Community

Research IRM

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

Purchase

Abstract

Related Content

IRMA Sponsors