Attracting Younger Audiences: Examining How Access to Local News Content Influences Perceptions of Credibility on Younger Readers

Abstract

The researchers conducted a case study to examine the relationship between campus and community newspaper exposure and perceptions of credibility for young adults. In the fall of 2005, the University of Florida partnered with the local paper to provide free copies of its paper on campus. In a 6-month period, two Web surveys (N = 3,400) of those enrolled in a general education class found that these readers view the campus newspaper as more credible than the community newspaper. Exposure and credibility for the community paper declined over time, but no significant changes were noted for the perceptions of credibility of the campus newspaper, although exposure declined for it. Researchers also found positive relationships between changes in credibility and increased exposure. Finally, perception changes for the college newspaper were linked to agreement with the campus newspaper's editorial policies. Implications are discussed.

Notes

¹This information was obtained from the University of Florida student government finance office on April 9, 2008.

²Information retrieved on August 10, 2006, from http://www.collegenews.com/campusnews.asp.

³The individual question means of accuracy, trustworthiness, and credibility for both the Sun and the Alligator ranged from 3.04 to 4.68 with a standard deviation of between 1.5 and 1.8 for both data collections. The question asking respondents to rate the level of attention paid to each newspaper garnered the largest difference with the spring respondents' mean for attention to the Sun at 2.22 and fall at 3.00 (SDs = 1.8). An opposing result occurred in spring respondents' mean for attention to the Alligator at 4.68 in the spring, compared to 3.75 in the fall (SDs = 1.4).

⁴The questions on a 5-point scale were labeled strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. Individual means for the questions ranged from 2.48 to 3.31 with standard deviations ranging from .7 to 1.1.

⁵The Alligator ran a controversial editorial cartoon just before the first data collection began. This battery of questions was developed for the second data collection to examine whether this cartoon had significant bearings on the college newspaper credibility. We found no direct effects between that cartoon and credibility ratings, but we have included that question in our analysis because of its similarity to the hostile media effect measures.

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

**p < .01.