“The Present Situation and Analysis of Media Use and Media Credibility:

College Students’ Perception of Media Credibility about Election-Related

News during the 2010 Presidential Elections”

Rose Ann A. Cruz

Francisco B. Bautista

(Authors)

Ebenezer R. Bonbon

(Research Assistant)

Communication Research Program

College of Communication

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Runner-up to the 2010 National Student Research Grand Prix

A concept paper presented to the Asian Congress for Media and Communication
Abstract

Based on the theoretical framework of Media Credibility Theory, this study will explore

College student’s perception of the media credibility about the 2010 Presidential Election.

Respondents will evaluate the credibility of newspapers, television news, radio news and online

news using a variation of Gaziano and McGrath’s 12-item Likert-type news credibility scale. A

cross-sectional survey will be conducted using stratified-cluster sampling (N=1,600) of students

from eight colleges in Metro Manila (2 Colleges per HEI’s). For every item in the credibility

scale, there are five numbers; the larger the number chosen by the respondents for each medium

and media credibility component, the higher is the perception of credibility. To explore

predictors influencing mass media credibility perception, the researchers will carry out five

multiple hierarchical regression analyses, using demographics, type of HEIs, interpersonal

communication, media use, media reliance as independent variables, and mass media credibility

as dependent variable. The researchers will employ a Bivariate analysis to examine sub-group

comparisons and correlations; Pearson’s r correlation coefficient and Chi-square test with 0.05 as

the alpha level. This undertaking will have practical significance to the education sector, for it

recognizes the role of media and communication as oil to learning; imperative in filling the

empty spaces in education and media literacy. It will be beneficial to the political and electoral

process, if media credibility will be found to exist in greater heights, important is to ensure that

media portrayal of the political arena is true to the very inch, empowering the public to

participate vigorously in the process of election.

 “The Present Situation and Analysis of Media Use and Media Credibility:

College Students’ Perception of Media Credibility about Election-Related

News during the 2010 Presidential Elections”

An information seeker’s environment—the Internet, television, newspapers, schools,

libraries, bookstores, and social networks—abounds with information resources that need to be

evaluated for both their usefulness and their likely level of accuracy. As people gain access to a

wider variety of information resources, they face greater uncertainty regarding who and what can

be believed and, indeed, who or what is responsible for the information they encounter.

Moreover, they have to develop new skills and strategies for determining how to assess the

credibility of an information source. Historically, the credibility of information has been

maintained largely by professional knowledge workers such as editors, reviewers, publishers,

news reporters, and librarians. Today, quality control mechanisms are evolving in such a way

that a vast amount of information accessed through a wide variety of systems and resources is

out of date, incomplete, poorly organized, or simply inaccurate (Janes & Rosenfeld, 1996).

Credibility has been examined across a number of fields ranging from communication,

information science, psychology, marketing, and the management sciences to interdisciplinary

efforts in human-computer interaction (HCI). Each field has examined the construct and its

practical significance using fundamentally different approaches, goals, and presuppositions, all

of which results in conflicting views of credibility and its effects. The notion of credibility has

been discussed at least since Aristotle’s examination of ethos and his observations of speakers’

relative abilities to persuade listeners. Disciplinary approaches to investigating credibility

systematically developed only in the last century, beginning within the field of communication.

A landmark among these efforts was the work of Hovland and colleagues (Hovland, Jannis, &

Kelley, 1953; Hovland & Weiss, 1951), who focused on the influence of various characteristics

of a source on a recipient’s message acceptance. This work was followed by decades of interest

in the relative credibility of media involving comparisons between newspapers, radio, television,

and the Internet (e.g., Meyer, 1974; Newhagen & Nass, 1989; Slater & Rouner, 1996; West,

1994). Communication researchers have tended to focus on sources and media, viewing

credibility as a perceived characteristic.

As an important part in the field of mass communication studies, Credibility Research,

especially Media Credibility Research has received much attention from many mass

communication researchers in America from the 1950s (Zhang,2005). In Southeast Asian

Countries, it was not until 1990’s that media credibility drew some attention from

communication scholars and practitioners in journalism. As Wang & Zhang (2004) point out, the

concept of Credibility is rather blurry in the very few documents on credibility research and there

are many shortcomings in existing research, such as the unscientific design and method in the

process of research, deficiency of verification of conclusion discovered by researchers overseas,

and so on. In fact, it is extremely critical for Filipino journalism and communication scholars to

keep a keen eye on media credibility nowadays. As is known to us all, the effect of mass

communication is inevitably influenced by media credibility, especially Philippines where mass

media are supposed to play an important role in individuals’ political, economic and cultural life.
 Schweiger (1998) pointed out that credibility becomes an important heuristic for content

selection at a time of information overload. Credibility may also influence the journalistic and

commercial success of a medium (Schweiger, 2000). Online news industry observers and

newspaper editors have expressed similar concerns over credibility, believability, ethical lapses,

newsgathering techniques, and news presentation (Lasica, 2001; Arant & Anderson, 2000).

The number of adults using the Internet to find and read news online is consistently on

the rise. One national study by the Pew Research Center reported that weekly use of online news

tripled from 11 million to 36 million people in the United States between 1996 and 1998, which

the center called astonishing (Pew Research Center, 1998). Other studies have shown similar

growth in use of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other online information resources (for

example, see Jupiter Media Metrix, 2001; Nielsen Media Research, 1999).

Because of privacy issues, content accuracy, reliability, and other related concerns, some

observers have predicted a troubled future for online news. Johnson and Kaye (1998) reminded

us that one of the basic characteristics of the Internet, its potential free access to everybody to

upload information without much scrutiny, might affect the credibility of the medium as a source

of information. Flanagin and Metzger (2000) noted that while newspapers, books, and television

undergo a process of information verification before they reach the public, Internet sites do not

always use such measures. The lack of editorial and gatekeeping rules similar to those in the

traditional print and broadcast news media is central to the problem. This, of course, is likely to

increase the importance of branded online news sites such as CNN.com and perhaps emphasize
the value of the so-called “halo effect” of an existing print or television news organization to its

online equivalent (such as Time magazine and its Web counterpart, Time Online).

Furthermore, two empirical studies on media credibility in urban area in mainland China

conducted respectively by Liao et al. (2005) and Zhang (2005) found that mass media credibility

was relatively low. Liao et al. (2005) hence suggested that this phenomenon would restrict the

comprehensive development of mass media in the transformation period of nowadays China.

Under the great background of three rural questions, that is rural economy, rural development

and rural demography gradually becoming the focus of Chinese’s social life and public agenda,

and at the same time, considering the absence of empirical document on mass media credibility

research in rural China, the current study is to empirically examine the perceived credibility and

its internal mechanism by rural residents of China.

In the Philippines, the mass media's (TV, radio and the press) manner of coverage has

contributed greatly to the image of the election campaign (Gonzalez, 2007). Newer modes of

registration and information campaign drives were done to invite people, especially the first-time

registrants to actively participate in the election. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC)

announced that the newly registered voters totaled 3.8 million for the 2010 elections

(FirstTimeVotersProject, 2009). Large media outfits like ABS-CBN and GMA organized their

own advocacy promotions, mainly to inform the public about what to expect in 2010.

However, it was apparent according to critiques that media focus on the candidates’

personality traits, charisma, sensational statements, standings, and the trends based on informal
and formal surveys. Platforms and their specific positions on social issues are overshadows with

how the candidates were portrayed by the reporters and news.

The main reason for the inadequate media coverage is the commercialization of the

media which makes it urgent for outfits alike to rate and make profit out of it. This

commercialization “has resulted in a strong tendency to pander to the taste of the public for

controversy, scandal, entertainment and sensational news” (Gonzalez, 2007). And because of this

inadequacy, the public receive substandard viewing experience which adds up to their poor

education in the media.

The new media (internet) also has gone a long way in increasing electoral awareness of

the Filipinos. The scope of communication technology in the Philippines suggests that internet

access in the Philippines is limited to urban/metro areas. About 28% of 35M Philippine urban

population have accessed the internet based on AC Nielsen-Yahoo (2009) survey, which can be a

factor why candidates having online presence lead the current surveys.

The Internet already established itself as a source of news coverage, fact checking and

criticism of the candidates, their surrogates and of the mainstream media. Both established

Internet web sites and "the ever-growing army of bloggers" were major players in the campaign

and have continued to be a significant presence in the media landscape since the election (Smith,

2005).
 Nonetheless, the unfaltering trust of the people to the new and old media constitutes a

gross breach of belief with the reader/viewer, who expects unbiased and fair news coverage

during elections. It compromises its independent position for the sake of commercial interests.

When people are losing faith in the democratic institutions of the country, the media is said to

accelerate the degeneration. And it is expected to play a role in restoring people's confidence in

democracy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the similarities and differences of the College

students’ perceptions of the credibility of traditional news media delivery systems newspapers,

radio and television news and the credibility of Web-based online news towards covering

Election related-news in the 2010 Presidential Election. Specifically, this paper investigates news

credibility in an attempt to determine the components of news credibility across traditional and

the online news media.

Theoretical Framework

Credibility is frequently attached to objects of assessment, as in source credibility, media

credibility, and message credibility, reflecting the fact that assessments of these objects differ

(Kiousis, 2001). At the same time, however, credibility assessments of sources and messages are

fundamentally interlinked and influence one another (Slater & Rouner, 1996)—that is, credible

sources are seen as likely to produce credible messages, and credible messages are seen as likely

to have originated from credible sources (Fragale & Heath, 2004). The extent to which source
and media credibility assessments are interlinked, however, is less clear, perhaps in part because

these have historically been investigated by different subdisciplines of communication. It is

unclear, for example, if credible media are seen as more likely to introduce credible sources or if

credible sources are seen as more likely to communicate via credible media.

For several decades, probably the best-known and most-employed media credibility

comparison item was that used by Roper Research Associates for the Television Information

Office: “If you got conflicting or different reports of the same news story from radio, television,

magazines, and newspaper, which of the four versions would you be most inclined to believe?”

(Roper, 1985). This question was aimed at discovering perceptions of the relative credibility of

different news media. More recently, comparisons between the Web and traditional media have

posed similar questions.

Credibility is generally defined as the qualities of an information source which cause

what it says to be believable beyond any proof of its contentions (West, 1994). It refers to the

objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message.

By tradition, credibility has two key components: trustworthiness and expertise, which

both have objective and subjective components. Trustworthiness was based more on subjective

factors, but can include objective measurements such as established reliability. Expertise can be

similarly subjectively perceived, but also includes relatively objective characteristics of the

source or message, which, for example, may be credentials, certification or information quality.
Secondary components of credibility include source dynamism, charisma and physical

attractiveness.

Scientific credibility has been defined as the extent to which science in general is

recognized as a source of reliable information about the world. (Bocking, Stephen 2004). The

term has also been applied more narrowly, as an assessment of the credibility of the work of an

individual scientist or a field of research. The general public can give a great deal of weight to

perceptions of scientific authority in their decisions on controversial issues that involve scientific

research. (Bocking, Stephen 2004).

From the view of expression of concept, credibility is also named as perceived

credibility, credibility perception, credibility assessment, and so on. Historically, the research on

credibility is commonly divided into two principle domains: source credibility and

channel/media credibility. Source credibility is involved in examining how different

communicator characteristics can influence the processing of messages of receivers, where the

concept source is typically defined as an individual or mass communicator, such as a newscaster

or world leader. Channel or media credibility research, on the other hand, focuses more on the

channel through which content is delivered rather than the sender or senders of that content. It is

noted that contemporary literature highlights variations in the perceived credibility attributed to

different media channels and factors that lead to these variations (Kiousis, 2001).

The inquiry concerning on the insight of media credibility has been a persistent issue in

the communication scholarship since the mid-20th Century, wherein the conceptualization and
measurement of credibility has been a continuing concern of research. The Gaziano & McGrath

(1986) credibility scale shall be used in this study, being one of the most popular frameworks of

the credibility theories. The two known scholars claimed that newspaper credibility comprised

two principle dimensions: believability and social concern.

Gaziano and McGrath (1986) introduced twelve dimensions of newspaper and television

news credibility. They included fairness, bias, completeness, accuracy, respect for privacy, watch

for people’s interests, concern for community, separation of fact and opinion, trust, concern for

public interest, factual, and level of training.

In addition, Gaziano’s (1987) analysis of four major credibility studies found twelve

operationalizations of credibility. These included believability; accuracy, completeness, and

covering up facts; trustworthiness and reliability; being unbiased, balance of coverage, fairness,

objectivity; other characteristics of press performance, such as invasion of privacy, covering up

stories; overall evaluations of how well media perform; confidence in media institutions,

comparisons of media with other institutions; independence of media from special interests,

other organizations, institutions; power/influence of media in community or society; relationship

of news media to government; honesty and ethical standards; and professionalism, training of

people in the media.

Gaziano noted that these measures had also been used in studies by Hovland and Weiss

(1951), Meyer (1988), and others. Gaziano and McGrath observed that media credibility is

comprised of fairness, (un)bias, telling the whole story, accuracy, respect for privacy, watching
out after peoples interest, concern for community well-being, separation of fact and opinion,

trustworthiness, concern for public interest, factuality, and reporter training level (Rubin,

Palmgreen, & Sypher, 1994).

Moreover, the researchers will use the Judgment of Information Quality and Cognitive

Authority by Taylor. Research on judgment and decision making suggests a useful framework

for understanding the nature of judgment of information in the course of information retrieval

interaction processes.

According to Rachlin (1989), “a judgment is always a guide for making a decision, which

leads to a choice, which then produces an outcome”. In other words, a judgment is always a stage

in a wider decision process in which a choice is eventually made and an outcome is experienced.

A judgment itself is incomplete, and it needs decisions, choices, and outcomes to form a

complete process. In this process, the judgment and decision is made internally, but choice is

actual behavior that can be directly observed. This leads to the notion that when a person makes

a judgment and he/she makes choices based on it, there exist good criteria by which the

judgment is determined.

Decision making is often modeled as an adaptive process which can partitioned into

subprocesses as follows (Huber, 1989; Rachlin, 1987). The decision process starts with an initial

situation in which the decision maker is confronted with a set of alternatives. There is a desired

goal situation (goal state) in which exactly one alternative has been chosen. Here the

representations of the alternatives are compared. The final stage of the decision process is the
conversion of a decision into a choice. Since a theorist cannot see directly into the mind of

another person, that person’s actual choice behavior in a given situation constitutes a clue as to

what the person’s decision processes might be.

In this theory, users are considered as active seekers of information who engage in a wide

variety of interactions in the course of information seeking including comprehension, organizing,

modifying, creating, disseminating, and using the information (Belkin, 1993; Belkin, 1996). In

all these activities, they look for information of potential interest, making judgments about the

usefulness or interest of information by engaging with it, and interpreting the information. The

basic premise of this study is that making judgments of quality and authority about information

is a central process of people’s information seeking. When people make decisions to accept or

reject specific information items, they base their judgments on whether those items are relevant

or not.

Conceptual Framework

To further explain the theories utilized by the research team, concepts were considered

and applied to meet the objectives of this research undertaking. Primarily, this study is

concerned with the analysis of similarities and differences that can be found in the credibility

dimensions of newspapers, television news, radio and online news in covering the 2010

presidential elections. All the ideas from the theories, when enveloped in a system can allow for

a succinct explanation why such framework best fitted to make the variables come together in a

systematically-arranged fashion.
 As derived from the Media Credibility Theory, the framework of the study shall be

consisted of the following, the Media Use, Media Reliance, the Demographic Variables, the

Interpersonal Communication and the Media Credibility.

The Media Use will determine the use of habits of the respondents across four news

media: the newspaper, radio, television, and the internet.

The Media Reliance will determine the rate of the reliance of the participants on media

according to the study. In this study, the researchers will take media as a whole on which the

Filipino Youth rely. It is the reason why it is interesting to identify if the youth relies in the

media for it will substantiate the analysis that is being drawn upon the inference of media

credibility.

The Interpersonal Communication is also posited to examine if it will affect an

individual’s media use. Furthermore, the “individual media dependency” approach stresses the

relationship individuals develop with mass media that in turn predict media use. This approach

also proposes that the more satisfaction an individual obtains from a specific mass media, the

heavier an individual will depend on the media. Enlightened by “individual media dependency”

approach, the researchers deem that College Students’ mass media use amount of interpersonal

communication should predict their mass media use to a certain extent.

The Demographic Variables in the study shall be composed of the collected Age, Gender,

Marital Status, Family Income, and Education which is divided into four sub-variables, which
will be the Private Sectarian, Private Non-Sectarian, Public State and the Public Local

Universities / Colleges as it will affect an individual from the Filipino Youth specifically, on

their media use, reliance and the credibility of the aforementioned as a whole in this study.

The model, presented in Figure 1, synthesizes theoretical issues related to the following

research areas: a) judgment and decision making process in general; b) relevance judgment in

information retrieval; c) judgment of information quality and cognitive authority. It suggests that

judgment of information quality and cognitive authority can be considered as a central process of

information retrieval interaction which is taking place between the user and information objects

in the media environment culture. This model further suggests that judgment of information

quality and cognitive authority is made in multiple dimensions including Trustworthiness,

Currency, Bias, Fairness, Completeness, Objectivity, Honesty, Up-to-date, Believability,

Balance, Accuracy and Timeliness.

It also indicates that, from the user’s side, the judgment is determined by such factors as

the demographic characteristics, media use, media reliance and interpersonal communication.

The user obtains knowledge in two different ways: one from first-hand experience and the other

from what we have second-hand (Wilson, 1983). Considering information objects, factors such

as presentation, source, content, and format could influence the user’s judgment of quality and

authority that the media inculcates (Rieh & Belkin, 1998). This model also suggests that there

are two kinds of judgment: predictive judgment and evaluative judgments (Hogarth, 1987).

Predictive judgments guide a decision about what kinds of action the user is going to take given

multiple choices (alternatives). As a result of this judgment, media induce selective news
preferences to the user. When the user gauge at the news, another kind of judgment: evaluative

judgment is made. This evaluative judgment will be affected by own preferences of the user.

From this point, iteration will occur. When the media presents selective news or information, the

predictive judgment of the user will ensue, this may result into: full selection and reliance and/or

the partial selection and reliance through filtering (the user will select a medium where he/she

perceived more credibility and, the user will filter news information from the medium). All these

predictors during the Judgment Interaction of the users will constitute the basis for the

determination of media credibility in presenting the 2010 Presidential Election.

Research Objectives

This study investigates the credibility of news across traditional and online media

towards covering 2010 Presidential Election Related-News. It examines the dimensions of news

credibility as a threshold to what predicts news credibility.

Credibility research comparing the Internet to traditional news sources has not been

conclusive or consistent (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000). Research about print newspapers and

online newspapers suggests additional, perhaps new, dimensions may exist. For example, print

newspapers are regarded as a serious news medium. Newspapers, after all, by their very name

are committed to news. Television news, by contrast, is regarded as less serious because the

medium of television is not primarily associated with news and credibility studies have shown

television credibility to be more based on individual on-air personalities such as news anchors

than the news organization or station (Newhagen & Nass, 1987). Television news is often

viewed as an addendum to the entertainment medium. Similarly, the Internet and the Web are not

solely devoted to news. Thus, the entertainment dimension must be considered when print and

online newspapers are compared. Furthermore, other predictors such as demographics, media

use, media reliance, interpersonal communication, and type of HEIs will use to measure,

compare and contrast the absolute media credibility of traditional and online news media towards

covering the 2010 Presidential Election.

 The following research objectives guided this study:

1. To determine the demographic profile of the students and examine each demographics

correlation to the student’s perception of media credibility across news channels.

a. Sex

b. Age

c. Family monthly income

d. Education

e. Political affiliation

2. To examine the correlation between the type of institutions and the student’s perception

on media credibility:

a. State

b. Local

c. Private Sectarian

d. Private non-sectarian

3. To find out the level of interpersonal communication of the respondents to their

environment and examine the correlation between interpersonal communication and the

student’s perception on media credibility.

4. To determine the use of habits of the respondents across news media and examine the

correlation between media use and the student’s perception on media credibility.
 5. To know the media reliance of the respondents across news media and examine the

correlation between media use and the student’s perception on media credibility.

6. To determine the similarities and differences that can be found in the credibility

dimensions of newspapers, television news, radio and online news in covering the 2010

presidential elections through a news credibility scale adopted from Gaziano and Mc

Grath.

Hypotheses

From the Theoretical and Conceptual Framework that was presented, the researchers

have constructed the following hypotheses.

H1: The College students’ mass media use will affect media credibility perception of the

2010 Presidential Elections.

H2: The College students’ mass media reliance will affect media credibility perception of

the 2010 Presidential Elections.

H3: The College students’ interpersonal communication will affect media credibility

perception of the 2010 Presidential Elections.

H4: The College students’ mass media use will affect his/her media reliance.

H5: The College students’ interpersonal communication will affect his/her mass media

use.
 H6: The College students’ (sex, age, family monthly income, political affiliation, and

type of HEI’s) will affect an respondents’ mass media use.

H7: The College students’ (sex, age, family monthly income, political affiliation, and

type of HEI’s) will affect the respondents’ mass media reliance.

H8: The College students’ (sex, age, family monthly income, political affiliation, and

type of HEI’s) will affect the respondents’ media credibility perception of the 2010

Presidential Elections.

Factors affecting perceived Media Credibility

Media use

This study specially examines the amount of usage of and content preference with the

mass media by selected College students. The researchers will ask respondents about their time

spent on different mass media (e.g., TV, newspaper, radio and internet) per week and their

preference with different mass media content (e.g., news, information and entertainment). It is

noted that the variable content preference is a nominal variable. Particularly, if an individual

spends more time on entertainment content than on news and information content, code it as 0; if

not, code it as 1. Important to understanding people’s evaluation of media credibility are factors

affecting audience perception of media coverage. In particular, media use is one variable that has

attracted considerable attention as a predictor for understanding perceived media credibility (Lo

et al., 2003). Traditionally, studies (e.g., Shaw, 1973; Westley, & Severin, 1964) have concluded

that the more time people spent on a medium, the more credibility they gave to it. Conversely,

however, Rimmer and Weaver (1987) did not find a strong correlation between media use and
media credibility. These studies suggest that the association between media use and media

credibility is, at best, ambiguous.

Gender

In addition to media use, gender frequently has been considered as a variable which may

influence people’s evaluation of media credibility. Some early works established that males

tended to believe newspapers more so than TV news, whereas females trusted the TV more so

than newspapers (Abel, & Wirth, 1977; Westley, & Severin, 1964). However, Mulder (1980)

indicated that males believed TV news more than other media, and females rated newspapers

more credible than other media. Similar to the conflicting evidence of the relationship between

time use and perceived media credibility, findings considering gender differences are often

contradictory.

Party Affiliation

Regarding the relationship between party affiliation and perceived media credibility,

some studies conducted in the U.S. (e.g., Westley, & Severin, 1964; Peterson, Kozmetsky, &

Cunnungham, 1982; Johnson, 1993) reported that respondents’ party affiliation might affect their

perception of media credibility. A nationwide study conducted in Taiwan, when the Kuomintang

(KMT) was the ruling party, found that respondents affiliated to the KMT were more likely to

feel that both TV and newspapers have higher credibility (Lo, & Chen, 1993) than other media.

After the shift of political power from the KMT to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in

2000, however, studies (Lo et al., 2003) indicated that party affiliation was no longer a predictor

of perceived credibility of newspapers, magazines, radio, and the Internet. Only respondents who
were supportive to the KMT would give TV election news higher credibility (Lo et al., 2003). In

this study, the researchers will examine this issue within the specific context of the 2010

Presidential Election to determine how survey respondents will evaluate the credibility of media

(e.g., TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, and Internet) regarding election-related news. To

determine which factors may be associated with perceived media credibility, the researchers will

compare the relationship between media use, gender, and political party affiliation with absolute

credibility of media.

Interpersonal communication

This variable is employed to measure the amount of College student’s interpersonal

discussion. Respondents were asked to assess their level of communication with the following

persons: (a) family members, (b) relatives, friends and acquaintance, (c) people in the same

University, and (d) other people in the society.

Media reliance

In this research, the respondents in the study were required to indicate their agreement or

disagreement with the following item: On average, how long do you not use mass media (e.g.,

TV, newspaper, radio and magazine), thus you may feel something absent from your everyday

life?

Media credibility

Media credibility is typically measured as a multidimensional construct, and different

measures generally lead to diverse outcomes (Gaziano & McGrath, 1986). The researchers
adopted the 12 dimensions of media credibility by Gaziano and Mc. Grath. Respondents were

asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement with the three items on five-point Likert scales

ranging from 1=“strong disagree” to 5=“strong agree”.

Media Credibility Measures

Researchers have utilized a variety of measurements and statistical procedures in their

quest to understand media credibility. Bivariate and multivariate approaches have been used,

including regression analysis (Mulder, 1980; Mulder, 1981) and factor analysis. While many

have used traditional data-collection methods such as telephone surveys and laboratory and field

experiments, new technologies such as online surveys and other experiments are beginning to be

used as well (Johnson & Kaye, 1998; Sundar, 1998). Online surveys using electronic mail and

the Web, however, have unresolved methodological issues such as low response rates, self-

selection bias, and access (Couper, Traugott & Lamias, 2001; Schaeffer & Dillman, 1998).

Infante (1980) used three dimensions to measure source credibility. These were

trustworthiness, expertise, and dynamism. Trustworthiness was operationalized as honest-

dishonest, trustworthy-untrustworthy, and sincere-insincere. For expertise, he used skilled-

unskilled, qualified-unqualified, and informed-uninformed. For dynamism, he used bold-timid,

active-passive, and aggressive-meek.

 Gaziano and McGrath (1986) identified twelve dimensions of newspaper and television

news credibility. They included fairness, bias, completeness, accuracy, respect for privacy, watch

for peoples interests, concern for community, separation of fact and opinion, trust, concern for

public interest, factual, and level of training. Furthermore, Gazianos (1987) analysis of four

major credibility studies found twelve operationalizations of credibility. These included

believability; accuracy, completeness, and covering up facts; trustworthiness and reliability;

being unbiased, balance of coverage, fairness, objectivity; other characteristics of press

performance, such as invasion of privacy, covering up stories; overall evaluations of how well

media perform; confidence in media institutions, comparisons of media with other institutions;

independence of media from special interests, other organizations, institutions; power/influence

of media in community or society; relationship of news media to government; honesty and

ethical standards; and professionalism, training of people in the media. Gaziano noted that these

measures had also been used in studies by Hovland and Weiss (1951), Meyer (1988), and others.

Gaziano and McGrath observed that media credibility is comprised of fairness, (un)bias, telling

the whole story, accuracy, respect for privacy, watching out after peoples interest, concern for

community well-being, separation of fact and opinion, trustworthiness, concern for public

interest, factuality, and reporter training level (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 1994, p. 234). In

this study, the researchers will utilize the 12 dimensions of news credibility scale to examine the

similarities and differences that can be found in the credibility dimensions of newspapers,

television news, radio and online news in covering the 2010 presidential elections
Significance of the Study

The research entitled “The Present Situation and Analysis of Mass Media Use and

Media Credibility: College Students’ Perception of the Media Credibility about Election-

Related News during the 2010 Presidential Election” will be pursued by the researchers in order

to gauge the significance of the differences among perception of determined subcategories on

media credibility of news about the Philippine 2010 presidential elections, and to determine the

correlation between media credibility and other variables. This undertaking will have practical

significance to the education sector, for it recognizes the role of media and communication as oil

to learning. Knowing the perception of the college students on media credibility is important in

filling the empty spaces in education and media literacy.

Also, the study will be beneficial to the political and electoral process of the study. If

media credibility will be found to exist in greater heights, important is to ensure that media

portrayal of the political arena is true to the very inch and empowering the public to participate

vigorously in the process of election.

Scope of the study

The study to be pursued will focus on the objective of the study, which is to determine

the existence of a correlational direction among the surrounding variables in the said

phenomenon.
 The scope of the study will revolve first on identifying profiles of the respondents who

will give their views about the phenomenon. The study will employ a highly quantitative design

which is solely based on a scientific positivist approach where hard data are construed to verify

an existence.

The study will be limited inasmuch as there will be only two representative institutions

per HEI type. It is also limited to college students in Metropolitan Manila thus; there are no

assumptions about the totality of the perception on media credibility in the whole country.

Literature Review

Media Credibility

The question relating to perceptions of media credibility has been a recurring issue in

mass communication scholarship since the mid-20th Century. While Hovland and Weiss's

seminal work on this issue (1951) concentrated on dimensions of source credibility, more

contemporary literature has highlighted variations in credibility perceptions of different channels

(Rimmer & Weaver, 1987). Westley and Severin (1964) are credited with conducting the first

comprehensive analysis of news credibility across media outlets. In their classic study, the

authors noted that certain demographic variables (such as age, education, and gender) mediate

people's perceptions of news credibility. Several analysts indicated that television news was

more credible than newspapers (Carter & Greenberg, 1965; Lemert, 1970; Gaziano & McGrath,

1986). Other researchers have traditionally related credibility perceptions to media political and

ideological leanings, especially in election times.

 Past studies suggest that how credible one views a medium as being is strongly related to

how often one relies on it (Wanta & Yu-Wei Hu, 1994) with relationships proving stronger for

reliance measures than general use ones (Gaziano & McGrath, 1986). It has also been suggested

that people judge their preferred medium as the most credible, with television gaining the highest

ranking (ASNE, 1985). Research findings suggest that those who are older, wealthier, and better

educated are least likely to view media as credible, while males judge media as less credible than

females (Westley and Severin, 1964).

Since the mid-1990s, with the proliferation of new media, credibility research has been

broadened to include audience perceptions of Internet-based news. Johnson and Kaye (1998)

note that the Internet, with its potential free access features, might affect the credibility of the

medium as a source of information. Flanagin and Metzger (2000) pointed out that while

newspapers, books, and television undergo a process of information verification before they

reach the public, Internet sites do not always use such measures. Abdallah et al. (2002) analyzed

news credibility components for a range of US newspaper, television, and online sites and found

similarities in how each medium was perceived. The study revealed some fundamental

differences as respondents evaluated newspaper and television news credibility more similarly

than they did online news credibility.

While traditional news sources and their online counterparts are subject to both

professional and social pressures to provide accurate and unbiased information, such constraints

do not exist for the Internet. In their study, Flanagin and Metzger (2000) compared perceptions

of Internet information credibility to other media. They concluded that the Internet was as
credible as television, radio, and magazines, but not newspapers. They found that credibility

varied by medium and types of information sought by audiences, such as news and

entertainment. Kiousis (1999) found perceptions of news credibility to be influenced by media

use and interpersonal discussion of news.

Internet studies also suggest that how credible people judge the medium to be depends on

how often they use it. Johnson and Kaye (1998) found that reliance on the Web for political

information was correlated with how credible they judged online newspapers, newsmagazines,

online candidate literature, and issue-oriented sources. However, hours per week on the Web and

on political sites in particular, as well as the number of times the Web has been accessed, were

unrelated to media credibility. Similarly, the Pew Research Center found that while 55% of

Americans in general rated the Internet as accurate as traditional media, 69% of Internet users

considered it as equally credible (Bromley & Bowels, 1998).

There is a growing body of studies pertaining to media credibility in America, China and

Taiwan, most of which are related to the measurement of media credibility, audience perception

of media credibility (e.g., Lo, & Chen, 1993; Lo, Lin, Niu, & Tsai, 2003; Lu, 1992; Yeh, 1999)

and people’s evaluation of election news accuracy, fairness (e.g., Lo, & Huang, 2000) or

credibility (e.g., Lo et al., 2003). For decades, communication researchers have explored the

perceived credibility of the media, as well as interpersonal channels. Hovland and Weiss (1951)

defined source credibility as a two-dimensional concept, which includes trustworthiness and

expertise. Later scholars identified, through such techniques as factor analysis, underlying

dimensions of credibility such as safety, qualifications, accuracy, fairness, and completeness

(Jacobson, 1969; Lee, 1978; Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1969). A major development in measuring

source credibility came from the Roper Organization (1979), which sought to measure relative

credibility among different sources by asking: “If you got conflicting or different reports of the

same news story from radio, TV, magazines, and newspapers, which of the four versions would

you be the most inclined to believe: the one on radio, TV, magazines, or newspapers?” Although

easy for respondents to answer, one criticism has been that it did not offer a “cognitive reference

point” to judge media credibility and thus could not sufficiently measure the absolute credibility

of the source (Lo et al., 2003). Thus, in recent decades there have been various efforts to expand

this into a multi-dimensional scale of credibility (Meyer, 1988) to elicit respondents’ evaluation

of media credibility based on coverage of specific topics, such as local news (Abel, & With,

1977) or local/national news (Gantz, 1981). The multi-dimensional scale for measurement of

credibility (which includes two dimensions: “social concern” and “credibility of report”) was

developed by Meyer (1988), and was derived from the semantic differential scale adopted by

Gaziano and McGrath (1986).

Media and the Electoral Process in the Philippines

Election in the Philippines serves as the stadium where the rich and the famous compete

for political power. The most notable families contest national and provincial offices while

families of lesser wealth compete for local offices. In the barangays or villages, where most

people are equally of the same economic status, election gives good standing in the local political
scene but no real power or money (http://countrystudies.us/philippines/86.htm, Retrieved 28

December, 2009).

Dubbed as a Manila centric empire, Philippines’ voter demographic is extracted in Metro

Manila proper and its suburban fringe. The National Capital Region (NCR) accounts for 14% of

the total voters in the country, while the nearby CALABARZON-MIMAROPA (Region IV) and

Central Luzon (Region III) areas share 16% and 11% respectively. The whole of Luzon

(comprising Regions I through IV, NCR and CAR) has almost half of the total electors (National

Statistics Office, 2007). Economically, wage income earners account for the 48% of the voting

population.

Voting rates have generally been high, which means that the electoral process is indeed

considered a legitimate societal exercise. The voters need to write out the names of all candidates

in longhand. Nevertheless, because of the newly chartered Republic Act No. 9369 or the

Amended Computerization Act of 2007, the presidential election in 2010 is expected to be an

automated one. After a course of exhaustive bidding, the Commission on Elections finally

awarded the poll automation contract to Smartmatic and Total Information Management—the

only bidder to pass the evaluation (ElectionWatch, 2009).

Newer modes of registration and information campaign drives were done to invite

people, especially the first-time registrants to actively participate in the election. The

Commission on Elections (COMELEC) announced that the newly registered voters totaled 3.8

million for the 2010 elections (FirstTimeVotersProject, 2009). Large media outfits like ABS-
CBN and GMA organized their own advocacy promotions, mainly to inform the public about

what to expect in 2010.

One example is the “Bilog na Hugis Itlog" performed by the all-girl group Sexbomb

Girls. This is GMA Network’s instructional jingle demonstrating the poll automation. It has a

music video version where the dancers instruct voter education with their signature body

language (GMA News, 2009). The ABS-CBN also launched Boto Mo Ipatrol Mo (BMPM), a

movement where people have the power to report a wrongdoing of local politicians with new

technology. Reports range from the usage of public vehicles for campaigns to vote buying

(Ressa, 2009).

The mass media's (TV, radio and the press) manner of coverage has contributed greatly to

the image of the election campaign (Gonzalez, 2007). The media focus on the candidates’

personality traits, charisma, sensational statements, standings, and the trends based on informal

and formal surveys. Platforms and their specific positions on social issues are overshadows with

how the candidates were portrayed by the reporters and news.

The main reason for the inadequate media coverage is the commercialization of the

media which makes it urgent for outfits alike to rate and make profit out of it. This

commercialization “has resulted in a strong tendency to pander to the taste of the public for

controversy, scandal, entertainment and sensational news” (Gonzalez, 2007). And because of this

inadequacy, the public receive substandard viewing experience which adds up to their poor

education in the media.

 The new media (internet) also has gone a long way in increasing electoral awareness of

the Filipinos. The scope of communication technology in the Philippines suggests that internet

access in the Philippines is limited to urban/metro areas. About 28% of 35M Philippine urban

population have accessed the internet based on AC Nielsen-Yahoo (2009) survey, which can be a

factor why candidates having online presence lead the current surveys.

The Internet already established itself as a source of news coverage, fact checking and

criticism of the candidates, their surrogates and of the mainstream media. Both established

Internet web sites and "the ever-growing army of bloggers" were major players in the campaign

and have continued to be a significant presence in the media landscape since the election (Smith,

2005).

In the 2008 United States presidential elections, it can be examined that Barack Obama

“has soundly beaten John McCain because new media strategy that played a big part in this win”

(Lewin, 2008). People are steadily moving their attention to new media. Most knew that no

candidate could win the election without getting their message in front of people on their

computer, on their iPods, on their cell phones and anywhere else people listen to, read and watch

new media.

Nonetheless, the unfaltering trust of the people to the new and old media constitutes a

gross breach of belief with the reader/viewer, who expects unbiased and fair news coverage

during elections. It compromises its independent position for the sake of commercial interests.

When people are losing faith in the democratic institutions of the country, the media is said to
accelerate the degeneration. And it is expected to play a role in restoring people's confidence in

democracy.

In a study done by Gronke (2008), it was revealed that people believe in statements

iterating election security and the fight against electoral fraud. However, the respondents rated

lower on personal matters on election like, the voters’ responsibility and voters’ privilege. These

were resolved through making registration and election return information easily and

transparently available; and engaging in more aggressive public outreach to educate people about

how elections are conducted and how we count our votes.

The claim of some social scientists is that since the mass media are a major source of

political information for voters, the media can shape public opinion by bringing particular issues

to the forefront of their reporting (Arnold, 2009). The mass media set the agenda for each

political campaign, influencing the salience of attitudes toward the political issue. Later studies

established the causal direction of the effect, which showed that public opinion lagged behind

media coverage. The agenda setting function of the media has been supported by a large number

of studies.

Media and Public Sphere

It is construed that media is supplementing the traditional professional decision-making

cycle with great affect (Di Mauro, 2009). Repeated exposure over time to similar messages
makes it easy for people to accept a message as true, and more importantly, act as though they're

true, even when they 'Know' the messages are false. However, what is often overlooked is the

impact of social media to change behaviors, and the potential to use social media to impact a

professional’s decision-making processes.

The concept of the public sphere (area in social life where people can get together and

freely discuss and identify societal problems) thus describes a space of institutions and practices

between the private interests of everyday life in civil society and the realm of state power

(UCLA-GSEIS, n.d.). The public sphere thus mediates between the private and the state which

often exerts arbitrary forms of power and domination. The principles of the public sphere involve

an open discussion of all issues of general concern in which discursive argumentation was

employed to ascertain general interests and the public good. The public sphere thus presupposed

freedoms of speech and assembly, a free press, and the right to freely participate in political

debate and decision-making.

The media intervenes with the public sphere through the establishment of close

relationship with politics (Meyer & Moors, 2005). Through religious booklets, radio broadcasts,

cassette tapes, television talk-shows, soap operas, and documentary film the media address

multiple publics and offer alternative forms of belonging.

Media in the Philippines is rowdy, free and noisy, but also vulnerable to pressure and

harassment. The book "From Loren to Marimar" published by the Philippine Center for

Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) provided a thorough analysis on the political economy and
structure of media in the Philippines. It traced the nature of its power and how it became a

decisive force in the Philippine political and electoral scene. Also explained is why media

personalities "have found their way into politics and why politicians are lining up to be news

anchors or talk show hosts" (Coronel, 1999).

Method

Data Collection

The data to be utilized in the study will be obtained from a cross-sectional survey of eight

representative higher education institutions, that is, two HEIs per type of institution (state

university/college, local university/college, private sectarian and private non-sectarian). The

study will recruit 1,600 respondents, 200 per HEI to complete the questionnaire.

The primary data of this study will be gathered through a survey questionnaire which will

serve as the main instrument in the study. The respondents will instruct to answer the

questionnaire very carefully and honestly. Thus, the evaluators assured the respondents that the

information they will supply will be treated with greatest confidentiality and anonymity.

The secondary data source will be collected from the human trails from media

organizations and communication professionals, relevant literature and studies; and electronic

materials. Similarly, internet articles and published books will also be included.
 The interviewers were responsible to review completed survey questionnaires for

completeness and accuracy on a daily basis.

Sampling

The sample design adapted for this evaluation was a two – stage stratified cluster design.

At the first stage, a sample of areas were chosen, the 2 HEI’s per type of institution were used as

primary sampling units; and at the second stage, a sample of respondent within those areas is

selected, the students were used as the secondary sampling units. To select clusters, probability

proportion to size sampling (PPS) was used; size being the number of students in a cluster.

This type of probability sampling is cheaper because the researchers can select

respondents from certain areas only, or certain time – periods only. This can reduce travel and

other administrative costs. It also means that one does not need a sampling frame for the entire

population, but only for the selected clusters. Moreover, it generally increases the variability of

sample estimates above that of simple random sampling, depending on how the clusters differ

between themselves, as compared with the within – cluster variation.

Main Outcome Variable

The main variable in the study is the college students’ perception of media credibility

during the news coverage of the Philippine 2010 elections. The different forms of media to be

included in the research are newspapers, television, radio, and the new media (internet). Likert

type of scale will be utilized to asses the respondents’ perception of media credibility based on

12 dimensions comprising media credibility, adopted from Gaziano and McGrath (i.e.,

trustworthiness, currency, bias, fairness, completeness, objectivity, honesty, up-to-date,

believability, balance, accuracy and timeliness).

Data Analysis

SPSS version will use to analyze the data from the household survey. Both descriptive

and analytical analysis will be conducted, including the production of cross – tabulations

between variables. Statistical significance was determined at the 95% level of significance.

Statistical Analyses

For every item in the credibility scale, there are five numbers (1 being “strongly

disagree” to 5 being “strongly agree”). The larger the number chosen by the respondents for each

medium and media credibility component, the higher is the perception of absolute credibility.
 Also, as a part of the study’s objective, demographic data is to be gathered from the

respondents, i.e., gender, family monthly income, and political affiliation. These will form a part

of the predictors for correlation. Respondents’ interpersonal communication is the third predictor

in which they will rate their personal communication with the family members, friends, people

within the same community and other people in the society. Respondents’ media use is the fourth

predictor wherein they will rate the number of hours in a week that they spend their time in

newspapers, television, radio, and the new media. The media reliance will form the fifth

predictor.

Bivariate analysis is to be used to examine sub-group comparisons and correlations,

focusing on pairs of variables at a time. For the first predictor (demographic data) and second

predictor (type of HEI’s), and third predictor (interpersonal communication), each variable will

be bivariately analyzed (according to sub-categories) with media credibility. Chi-square testing

will be utilized in this light, employing the alpha level of 0.05. This is to determine if the means

in the different sub-categories are significantly different.

For the fourth and fifth predictors, inasmuch as the data are interval, the researchers will

utilize the Pearson’s r correlation coefficient, with 0.05 as the alpha level.

Also, a chi-square test will be utilized to determine if there are significant differences

between the average means given by the respondents in the different types of higher education

institution.
 And finally, to explore predictors influencing mass media credibility perception by

College students, the researchers will carry out five multiple hierarchical regression analyses,

using demographics, type of HEIs, interpersonal communication, media use, media reliance as

five groups independent variables, and mass media credibility as dependent variable.
 Appendix A
Survey Questionnaire
______________________________________________________________________________

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

College of Communication
Department of Communication Research
Sta. Mesa, Manila

For the Respondents

Good day!
We, students from Bachelor in Communication Research, IV-1 at Polytechnic University of the
Philippines, College of Communication would like to invite you to take part in a survey dealing with the Perceived
Media Credibility of the 2010 Presidential Election Related-news across traditional and new media.
We would be grateful if you would take a moment to fill out this survey. We will not use any personal
information for any purpose. We just need the numbers. Everyone's answer will remain anonymous, and no one can
view the results but the researchers. Please be as honest as you feel comfortable with.
Feel free to comment and give us any further insight that you may have.
Thank you for your free time!

The Researchers

A. Demographic Characteristics

Name: _________________________(optional) Age: _____ Gender: ____F ___M

Family monthly Income: _____ 35,000+
_____ 25,000-34,000
_____ 15,000-24,000
_____ 5,000-14,000

Do you have any political/party affiliations? ____Yes ____No

If yes, please name your political/party affiliations. __________________

How did your political/party affiliation affect you on ____ affect me very much
acceptance or non-acceptance, or, believing or non-believing of ____ affect me much
news about 2010 Presidential election? ____ neutral
____ affect me few
____ did not affect me
B. Media Use
1. How much time do you spend watching television news in a week?
___ 10+ hours ___ 4-6 hours
___ 7-9 hours ___ 1-3 hours

2. How much time do you spend reading newspapers in a week?

___ 10+ hours ___ 4-6 hours
___ 7-9 hours ___ 1-3 hours

3. How much time do you spend listening to radio news in a week?

___ 10+ hours ___ 4-6 hours
___ 7-9 hours ___ 1-3 hours

4. How much time do you spend accessing to internet news in a week?

___ 10+ hours ___ 4-6 hours
___ 7-9 hours ___ 1-3 hours

5. Why did you access to media? Rate the following reasons with one as your first preference.
___ information ___ entertainment
___ news ___ advertisements
___ others, _________________, pls. specify

6. Among the following traditional and new media, what is your most preferred channel in obtaining
news about the 2010 Presidential election?
___ Television ___ Newspaper
___ Radio ___ Internet

C. Interpersonal Communication
Please assess your level of communication with the following persons:
Very much Much Neutral Few Very Few

(a) family members,

(b) relatives, friends and acquaintance

(c) people in the same University

(d) other people in the society.

 How did your interpersonal discussion affect you on ____ affect me very much
acceptance or non-acceptance, or, believing or non-believing of ____ affect me much
news about 2010 Presidential election as covered in the ____ neutral
media channels? ____ affect me few
____ did not affect me

D. Media Reliance
1. On average, how long do you not use mass media?
___ 1 day ___ 4-5 days
___ 2-3 days ___ 6-7 days

2. Not using mass media for a day or days, do you feel something absent from your everyday life?
___ affect me very much ___ affect me few
___ affect me much ___ did not affect me
___ neutral

E. Media Credibility

Question Wording Answer Categories

1. How much time do you think media channels to Just about always
report the 2010 Presidential elections fairly? Most of the time
a. Television news Only some of the time
b. radio news None of the time
c. Newspapers
d. Online news
2. Thinking about television news reporting 2010 1-5 Scale
Presidential elections that you are most familiar
with, please indicate whether you think they:
a. Are trustworthy
b. Are current
c. Are bias
d. Are fair
e. Are complete
f. Are objective
g. Are honest
 h. Are up-to-date
i. Are believable
j. Are balance
k. Are accurate
l. Are timely
3. Thinking about radio news reporting 2010 1-5 scale
Presidential elections that you are most familiar
with, please indicate whether you think they:
a. Are trustworthy
b. Are current
c. Are bias
d. Are fair
e. Are complete
f. Are objective
g. Are honest
h. Are up-to-date
i. Are believable
j. Are balance
k. Are accurate
l. Are timely
4. Thinking about newspaper covering 2010 1-5 scale
Presidential elections that you are most familiar
with, please indicate whether you think they:
a. Are trustworthy
b. Are current
c. Are bias
d. Are fair
e. Are complete
f. Are objective
g. Are honest
h. Are up-to-date
i. Are believable
j. Are balance
k. Are accurate
l. Are timely
5. Thinking about Online news covering 2010 1-5 scale
Presidential elections that you are most familiar
 with, please indicate whether you think they:
a. Are trustworthy
b. Are current
c. Are bias
d. Are fair
e. Are complete
f. Are objective
g. Are honest
h. Are up-to-date
i. Are believable
j. Are balance
k. Are accurate
l. Are timely
6. Are you satisfied with the news that you I am satisfied
received, saw, heard, or read about the 2010 I’m not satisfied
Presidential Election?
a. Television news
b. Radio news
c. Newspapers
d. Online news
7. Which do you think the news media care more Being the first to report a story
about, in general? Being accurate in reporting a story
a. Television news
b. Radio news
c. Newspapers
d. Online news
References

Abdulla, R., Salwen M., & Garrison B. (August 9, 2002). The Credibility of Newspapers,

Television News, and Online News. Mass Communication and Society Division, Association for

Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, annual convention, Miami Beach, Fla.

Retrieved December 11, 2010.

Coronel, S. (1999). From Loren To Marimar. Quezon City: Philippine Center for Investigative

Journalism.

DiMauro, V. (2009). The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks: Social Media’s Impact on

Decision-Making. Retrieved December 19, 2009 from the Society for New Communications

Research website: http://sncr.org/2007/12/08/research-educational-services/

ElectionWatch. Poll automation contract, awarded to winning bidder. Retrieved December 20,

2009 from author website: http://electionwatch.ph/.

GMA News. GMA Network unveils Sexbombs doing voter education. Retrieved December 20,

2009 from the author website: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/178740/gma-network-unveils-

sexbombs-doing-voter-education.
Gonzalez, D.T. Elections, the media and pop culture. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from the

HotManila website: http://hotmanila.ph/Focus/2007/elections&the%20media0407494.html.

Gronke, P. Public Opinion and Election Reform: Valence Issues vs. Choice Issues. Retrieved

December 20, 2009 from the California Institute of Technology website:

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/?p=2653

Lewin, J. How Barack Obama Beat John McCain With New Media. Retrieved December 19,

2009 from PodcastingNews: http://www.podcastingnews.com/2008/11/05/how-barack-obama-

beat-john-mccain-with-new-media/comment-page-1/.

Meyer, B; Moors, A. (2005). Religion, Media and the Public Sphere. Bloomington: Indiana

University Press.

Mingxin, L. (2006). The Present Situation and Analysis of Mass Media Use and Media

Credibility in Countryside of Mid-China: The Case of Hubei Province. China Media Research,

2(4). Retrieved December 11, 2009, from

Ressa, M.A. ABS-CBN launches Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula.Retrieved November 30

from the ABS-CBN website: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/05/10/09/abs-cbn-launches-

boto-mo-i-patrol-mo-ako-ang-simula
Seth, A., Zhang J., & Cohen, R. (2005). A Subjective Credibility Model for Participatory Media.

School of Computer Science University of Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Smith, T. Election 2004 and beyond: did the media fail? Retrieved December 19, 2009 from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology website: http://web.mit.edu/comm-

forum/forums/elections_did_media_fail.html

University of California at Los Angeles, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

(n.d.). Habermas, the Public Sphere, and Democracy: A Critical Intervention. Retrieved December

20, 2009 from author website: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/habermas.html

 Judgment Interaction

USER

Demographics Variables Media Reliance

Interpersonal Communication Media Use

Judgment of IQ and CA

• Trustworthiness
• Currency MEDIA
• Bias
• Fairness CREDIBILITY
Predictive Evaluative Predictive
• Completeness in presenting
Judgment1 Judgment Judgment2
• Objectivity
• Honesty
the 2010
• Up-to-date Presidential
• Believability Election
• Balance
• Accuracy
• Timeliness

Information of a News Story in Media

• Content
• Source
• Presentation
• Format
Iteration
 POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
College of Communication
Bachelor in Communication Research
Sta. Mesa, Manila

December 30, 2009

Asian Congress for Media and Communication

To whom it may concern,

I hereby certify that the following persons are bona fide students of the Communication
Research Program of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, College of Communication,
and are duly endorsed as the official representatives of this institution for the ACMC Grand
Prix:

Rose Ann A. Cruz (author)

Francisco B. Bautista (author)

Ebenezer R. Bonbon (research assistant)

This may be used in any purpose in which it may serve.

Thank you very much. To God be the Glory.

Respectfully yours,

Prof. Racidon P. Bernarte

Adviser

Noted by:

Dr. Robert F. Soriano

Dean