This infographic is based on the RECLAIM Discussion Paper “News credibility in the age of misinformation”, written by Martin Moland, Jacopo Custodi, Hans-Jörg Trenz and Asimina Michailidou. The paper uses a survey experiment in Norway, Italy and Poland to understand how linguistic style impacts the credibility of information in a legacy media context.

A large literature investigates what shapes people’s perceptions of fake news. However, much of this literature has concerned itself with social media, ignoring that legacy media still plays an integral part in many people’s news diets.

This report finds that those exposed to the tabloid version of a story are more likely to believe that the story is false than those who saw a version of the story that employed the tropes of “broadsheet journalism”.

Therefore, rather than seeking to disseminate information in the most tabloid way possible to compete for clicks in an attention economy, journalists should use less emotionally charged language to enhance the credibility of their reporting.

At the same time, people’s pre-existing attitudes, gender, age, and choice of news diets can influence how they evaluate the credibility of a news story. This report explores all of these aspects and puts forward policy recommendations to bolster the credibility of fact-based journalism. 

Read the report here and download the infographic to know more.