Media Literacy and News Credibility: Does knowledge of media ownership increase skepticism in news consumers?

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 informational print about media ownership may promote modest increases in critical responses to news media.