Measuring Photo Credibility in Journalistic Contexts: Scale Development and Application to Staff and Stock Photography

Noting its absence, this article presents a newly-developed scale that specifically measures the construct of photo credibility in journalistic contexts. The scale was developed using adaptations of previous media-credibility scale statements and applying them to the context of photography that appears in the news. Using the scale, the study addresses audience perceptions of the credibility of stock photographs versus photographs taken by newspaper-staff photojournalists. The scale proves reliable, and through its use, it is suggested that participants in the study perceive stock photos as significantly less credible than those taken by staff photojournalists. Dimensions of credibility within the scale provide opportunity for more nuanced examination of the nature of these differences of perception.