Website quality in digital media: literature review on general evaluation methods and indicators and reliability attributes

Abstract

Introduction: In the context of the loss of confidence towards Internet content, misinformation, fake news and the financial crisis affecting the press globally, the studies that propose instruments dedicated to evaluating digital media websites are reviewed. Objectives: Identify and characterize the works focused on digital media, examine their methodologies and indicators, and check if they consider reliability attributes among them. Methodology: Scientific production on web quality is examined through a systematic review on 83 articles retrieved from the main databases, detecting parameters of web quality in general, and mentions of web aspects with ethical or social implications. Results and discussion: As part of the findings, it has been found that specific tools for the evaluation of digital media are scarce and that among the evaluation methods, expert analysis through heuristic inspection predominates over user studies. The most studied parameter is interactivity, understood as a space for participation, followed by usability, accessibility and personalization, among others. In addition, there are very few references to deontological matters and almost no references to international guidelines, standards and policies. Conclusions: Numerous studies address specific indicators of digital media, but there are few analysis protocols for websites that support them. There is, therefore, a wide margin of improvement in the studies of website quality in digital media, incorporating not only technical issues but also considering parameters of journalistic rigor and informative credibility.