The Impacts of Hyperlinks and Writer Information on the Credibility of Stories on a Participatory Journalism Web Site

Credibility in mainstream media continues to wane, giving rise to new forms of journalism supported by the Internet. One of these new forms of journalism is participatory journalism. This is a form of journalism in which content is produced by ordinary citizens, usually on web sites. One of the most popular participatory journalism web sites at this time is ohmynews.com. Like mainstream media, this site, as well as ones like it, have credibility obstacles to overcome. This paper outlines a proposed study in which the researcher will test whether or not the presence of information about a writer and sources used to write a story on a participatory journalism web site affects the perceived credibility of the story.