Dissertation
Predictors of credibility assessments in online information seeking of college students
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
05/2009
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005681
Abstract
The Internet has become a popular source of health information, particularly for those young adults who have grown up with the World Wide Web at their fingertips. Due to its structure as a free and open source of information, lacking oversight and regulation, individuals must be able to sort through a multitude of information varying largely in quality and accuracy. The current study employed both an online survey and a Web-response survey to explore the relationship between media literacy, health engagement and need for cognition and their impact on an individual's application of verification criteria, indicative of critical thinking about health information retrieved online. Findings suggest media literacy as having a greater positive impact on health information seeking, in terms of applying critical thinking criteria when forming credibility perceptions, than the other variables considered in this study. The results of the study are relevant to media literacy supporters working to influence educators, communities, state and federal policy makers and grantors. Additionally, these results provide guidance for health educators interested in promoting both their online health information and healthy online health information seeking behaviors. Lastly, this study provides a foundation on which to begin to build a model of media literacy external of a media literacy intervention.
Metrics
2 File views/ downloads
12 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Predictors of credibility assessments in online information seeking of college students
- Creators
- Rebecca Van de Vord
- Contributors
- Erica Weintraub Austin (Chair)Bruce E Pinkleton (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Edward R. Murrow College of CommunicationStacey Jolene Hust (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Department of Strategic CommunicationLESLIE D HALL (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 181
- Identifiers
- 99901054533701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation