Available online at www.jmle.org The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education 2:1 (2010) 37 - 46 Media Literacy and News Credibility: Does knowledge of media ownership increase skepticism in news consumers? Seth Ashley, Mark Poepsel, Erin Willis School of Journalism, University of Missouri at Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA Abstract This study explores how increased knowledge of media ownership may affect judgments of credibility in responding to print news. An experiment was conducted with 80 undergraduate journalism students. Subjects were randomly exposed to either an informational article about the pros and cons of consolidation in media ownership or poetry. Then subjects read and analyzed four news stories, analyzing each using a credibility scale that includes judgments of truth, superficiality, general accuracy and completeness. Results show statistically significant differences in judgments of general accuracy and superficiality, suggesting that exposure to informa- tional print about media ownership may promote modest increases in critical responses to news media. Keywords: Media Ownership, Political Economy, Media Literacy, News Media, Journalism As Marshall McLuhan famously pointed One aspect of media literacy focuses on struc- out, humans live in constructed media environments tural characteristics of media industries, including me- as unconsciously as fish in water. Therefore, it can dia ownership and media economics. Some suggest that be difficult to see that media constructions of real- it is helpful for news consumers to know who owns ity sometimes offer incomplete or inaccurate por- the media companies that produce news (McChesney trayals of the world we live in. The growing field 1999, 2004; Silverblatt 2001; Potter 1998). This is be- of media literacy aims to make media consumers cause ownership, some believe, shapes the content of aware of their media environments and increase criti- news and journalism. The incentive to maximize profit cal thinking about media’s constructions of reality. in the commercial media system is thought to limit the Broadly, media literacy can be defined as diversity of views presented. Ultimately, this is seen as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and commu- a disservice to democracy, which is dependent on a free nicate a variety of media messages (Hobbs 2008). and independent press charged with the responsibility Christ and Potter (1998) conclude that media lit- of supporting a well-informed citizenry. This is where eracy is “more than just the development of certain we focus our attention, by designing a simple experi- skills, but also the acquisition of knowledge struc- ment that would attempt to gauge the impact of a quick tures, especially about the media industries, gener- lesson in media ownership on participants’ views of al content patterns, and a broad view of effects” (8). the credibility of four news articles. Before discuss- Taken together, these two definitions inform our ing our methods and results, it is useful to review the study, which hypothesizes that acquisition of knowl- relevant literature that helps to justify this approach. edge structures about the media industry—specifi- cally, media ownership—will mitigate the credibility Media Literacy, Citizenship and Social Change of news messages and encourage skepticism on the Media literate individuals “can decode, evalu- part of the news consumer. Put more simply, as me- ate, analyze and produce both print and electronic dia literacy increases, news credibility decreases. media” (Christ and Potter 1998, 7). Core concepts of media literacy include a set of knowledge, skills and at- 39 38 S. Ashley / Journal of Media Literacy Education 2:1 (2010) 37 - 46 S. Ashley / Journal of Media Literacy Education 2:1 (2010) 37 - 46 titudes, including these ideas: (1) Media are constructed as an education in techniques that can democratize the Procedure We also controlled for recency effect by ran- and construct reality; (2) the media have commercial realm of public expression and will magnify the pos- The experiment was run in a large, relative- domly alternating the statements about the positive implications; (3) media have ideological and political sibility of meaningful public interactions” (2000, 449). ly quiet meeting room in a new building on a public and negative aspects of the corporate media system for implications; (4) form and content are related in each Dyson (1998) claims, “The real need is for a better un- university campus. The room was well lit with sev- each participant in the test group. Half of the students medium, each of which has a unique aesthetic, codes, derstanding among adults of how media work—with eral long tables arranged in four rows with two-doz- in the test group read arguments against the corporate and conventions; (5)receivers negotiate meaning in me- more attention drawn to dated definitions of censorship en office chairs evenly dispersed. Every effort was media system before reading arguments in favor of it. dia (7-8, citing Aufderheide 1997, 80). Christ and Pot- and freedom of expression and how these are being ex- made to ensure students were comfortable and able The other half read arguments in favor of the corpo- ter conclude that media literacy is “more than just the ploited by corporate interests for the purpose of pro- to focus on the reading and evaluation materials pro- rate media system before reading arguments against it. development of certain skills, but also the acquisition tecting unfettered freedom of enterprise, without any vided. Students were free to sign up and participate of knowledge structures, especially about the media in- regard for the social and cultural fallout” (159). at their leisure during designated testing times, all Stimulus Materials dustries, general content patterns, and a broad view of In this study we hypothesize that learning occurring between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Upon ar- The four news articles were chosen from the Web effects. … It is more than just cognitive. It also requires about media ownership leads media consumers to of- rival in the testing room, participants were asked sites of four different mainstream news outlets (ABC, aesthetic, emotional and moral development” (8). Many fer lower credibility ratings of news stories. Because to sign a consent form and given a test packet. Most MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York of the questions asked in the media literacy debates of their primary obligation to return value to share- often, several students participated at the same time. Times). Topics included the U.S. economic crisis, Iraqi have direct application to higher education and lifelong holders, corporate media are not held accountable for The task took approximately 30 minutes to complete. defectors stating that Iraq was a haven for terrorists, in- learning. The authors also discuss curriculum-building their inattention to issues of citizenship and demo- dications that Democrats will move slowly on labor and issues and address the problem of how to teach media cratic participation. Most Americans are unaware of Stimuli regulatory goals in 2009, and difficulties facing Presi- literacy: “There is a sense that the very act of study- how the commercial media system shapes the news Participants were randomly assigned to receive dent-elect Barack Obama in carrying out his campaign ing media can help democratize the teacher-student re- they receive. Greater awareness of media owner- a test package or a control package. In the test pack- promises. The news stories were rotated in an effort to lationship because the act of critique is one of ‘reflec- ship might promote skepticism about news content age, there was an educational component titled “Me- control for primacy effects and the effects of fatigue or tion and dialogue’” (10, citing Masterman 1997, 44). by increasing knowledge about characteristics of dia Consolidation & Ownership: Pros and Cons of the sensitization, in case people became more or less criti- Some scholars posit that the goal of media liter- the “authors” who construct news media messages. Corporate Media System.” Included in each packet was cal of stories the longer they worked through the study. acy is to help people become sophisticated citizens rath- a series of four news stories to read, followed by ques- These articles were selected for their apparent er than just sophisticated consumers (Lewis and Jhally Method tions about each story’s credibility. Participants in the adherence to traditional journalistic norms of objectiv- 1998). Media literacy, they say, is a way of extending Design control group were given a series of nature poems to ity, balance and independence, and for their coverage democracy to the place where democracy is increas- To test this hypothesis, we designed a simple read prior to evaluating the news articles. The poetry of four separate subject areas. The outlets that pro- ingly scripted and defined. Media education should between-subjects experiment to determine the impact provided was the same length in word count (about duced the articles are subject to different ownership teach students to engage media texts, some argue, but it of increased knowledge on judgments of message cred- 800) as the educational component and contained no structures but all are owned by public corporations should also teach them to engage and challenge media ibility. The experiment tested a convenience sample of references to modern media, technology or