Media Credibility

The word “credibility” is more associated with the word “trust”. From a sociological perspective trust or credibility is defined as a rational-choice (Coleman, 1990). Media users use the medium for gratifying their needs, be it entertainment or information. But, given the era of new technology, not all information is useful and credible to the user. The user filters information based on its credibility and believability. (Wathen and Burkell, 2002).
Media users use the medium for gratifying their needs, be it entertainment or information. But, given the era of new technology, not all information is useful and credible to the user. The user filters information based on its credibility and believability. (Wathen and Burkell, 2002). Fogg et al

The nature of news and medium, today, has forced the receiver of the information to accept information with the concept of credibility and believability. (Wathen and Burkell, 2002). Alike, Fogg et al. (2002) also indicated that user of online information are becoming more cynical about the information disseminated through Internet or any online medium. Nonetheless, few researches argue that usage of media, feature of news and dependency on a medium plays a pivotal role in the concept of perceived credibility. (Flanagin and Metzger,

The freedom of the press, while not recognised as a separate freedom under Fundamental Rights, is folded into the freedom of speech and expression. In the Consultation paper on Media Law (May, 2014) by the Law Commission of India, states that the Supreme Court has described this freedom as the “ark of the covenant of democracy…The ability to disseminate information seamlessly over social media has resulted in a rising need to regulate the content of such information. Section 66A of the IT Act makes it a punishable offence to send messages that are offensive or false or created for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill-will, through a computer device. Since no guidelines have been laid down for identification of offensive information, the wide amplitude of the provision has often been used for politically motivated arrests”. This is the exact worry when it comes to crossing the line of freedom and credibility and treading the waters between