Measuring Social Media Credibility: A Study on a Measure of Blog Credibility

Abstract

As individual members of publics now have greater expectations to have substantial interactions with organizations, especially by using the digital/social media, communication professionals have been looking for ways to enhance these interactions. After reviewing previous literature, this current study intends to show that credibility of social media is one of the key factors initiating and further increasing public engagement and communication effectiveness in the digital/social media. Among various social media, this study limits its scope to blogs, which have been considered to be the most pertinent social medium used in the field of communication management. Previous research on blog credibility has reported limited reliability of measures, partly due to the use of general credibility measures that have been developed to assess credibility of traditional news media. An effective way to measure blog credibility is hard to achieve without a valid, reliable method to insure that measurement. This study has developed and validated a 14-item measure of blog credibility and by the usage of focus groups and a survey. This study also discusses the implications practical aspects of measuring blog credibility.