ADVERTISING CREDIBILITY ACROSS DIFFERENT MEDIA CHANNELS

In the field of communication, researchers are primarily interested in finding out about people’s choices of media such as television, newspapers, magazines, online news, etc. Perceptions of the reliability and trustworthiness may be significantly affected by the selection of information sources and credibility can be suggested as one of the factors driving the traffic of individuals to certain media. The concept of credibility is not new and has been studied in the ancient Greece – how the speakers persuade audience members. However, studies of the credibility of mass media began interesting in times when the rising number of people started turning to radio for news instead of newspapers. Another change was brought by television and in the last decade of the 20th century, rise of the Internet has led to recent credibility studies comparing traditional sources with this emerging medium.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in advertising credibility perception across different media channels – television, newspapers and the Internet and determine if the medium of delivery has an impact on credibility assessment of advertising. The results showed overall moderate credibility of all the media but newspapers have shown the highest overall credibility, followed by the Internet and television, respectively. Advertising credibility was higher in traditional media than in the Internet. Negative attitudes were the highest in the online channels and the most credible advertising channel was the television. The results indicated there is no relationship between the medium credibility and credibility of advertising. Communication to audiences requires an exploration of trustworthiness in order to formulate correct strategies. By recognizing the credibility of the advertisements and the media in which they are placed, the findings can be considered for attracting audiences.

Keywords: Advertising, credibility, media.