Rediscovering web credibility

This heuristic study of web credibility, considered education as a previously determined demographic to compare the user based data of this study to previous findings in the literature of web credibility and source credibility. By conducting focus groups of college undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty and using grounded theory analysis, 12 categories emerged from the data. These twelve factors were used in developing a process model of web credibility to explain the data in this study. After comparing this data and model to previous findings, several implications and suggestions for future research emerged. The most significant finding was that authority may be highly undervalued in the web credibility literature. Also the data in this study shows that undergraduates reacted much differently in terms of web credibility than did the more educated participants. The data furthermore implies that the disparity between groups hinges more on training in web development than education.Department of Communication StudiesThesis (M.A.