Exploring Receivers' Criteria for Perception of Print and Online News

This study investigates the factor structure underlying receivers' perceptions of news content. Exploratory analyses of readers' ratings of a wide variety of news stories reveals that receivers implicitly use at least four key variables in their perception of printed and online news stimuli. This article explicates the four criteria used by news receivers—Credibility, Liking, Quality, and Representativeness—and offers measures for future empirical research on news perception.