TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceived credibility of Internet encyclopedias
AU - Kubiszewski, Ida
AU - Noordewier, Thomas
AU - Costanza, Robert
PY - 2011/4
Y1 - 2011/4
N2 - A vast amount of information is now available online, produced by a variety of sources with a range of editorial oversight procedures. These range from very centralized information with multiple layers of review, to no oversight at all. Determining which information is credible can pose a real challenge. An experiment was designed to determine whether certain webpage characteristics affect academics' and students' perception of the credibility of information presented in an online article. The experiment looked at five peripheral cues: (1) presence or absence of an identifiable author, (2) presence or absence of references, (3) presence or absence of a biased sponsor, (4) presence or absence of an award, and (5) whether the article is designated as appearing in Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, or Encyclopedia of Earth. The results indicate that compared to Encyclopedia Britannica, article information appearing in both Encyclopedia of Earth and Wikipedia is perceived as significantly less credible. They also show that the presence of a biased sponsor has a significant negative effect on perceived credibility.
AB - A vast amount of information is now available online, produced by a variety of sources with a range of editorial oversight procedures. These range from very centralized information with multiple layers of review, to no oversight at all. Determining which information is credible can pose a real challenge. An experiment was designed to determine whether certain webpage characteristics affect academics' and students' perception of the credibility of information presented in an online article. The experiment looked at five peripheral cues: (1) presence or absence of an identifiable author, (2) presence or absence of references, (3) presence or absence of a biased sponsor, (4) presence or absence of an award, and (5) whether the article is designated as appearing in Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, or Encyclopedia of Earth. The results indicate that compared to Encyclopedia Britannica, article information appearing in both Encyclopedia of Earth and Wikipedia is perceived as significantly less credible. They also show that the presence of a biased sponsor has a significant negative effect on perceived credibility.
KW - Encyclopedia Britannica
KW - Encyclopedia of Earth
KW - Experiment
KW - Internet encyclopedia
KW - Likelihood model
KW - Perceived credibility
KW - Survey
KW - Wikipedia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78650169900&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.10.008
DO - 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.10.008
M3 - Article
SN - 0360-1315
VL - 56
SP - 659
EP - 667
JO - Computers and Education
JF - Computers and Education
IS - 3
ER -