Reliability Criteria for News Websites

TL;DR

This paper identifies and analyzes reliability criteria for news websites to help distinguish trustworthy sources from misinformation, emphasizing criteria that are difficult to manipulate and exploring technological support for users.

Contribution

It provides the first empirically substantiated list of reliability criteria for news websites, comparing their application by laypeople and journalists, and discusses technological support options.

Findings

Six criteria are difficult to manipulate: content, political alignment, authors, standards, sources, reputation.

Eleven criteria are identified and analyzed for reliability assessment.

Technological tools can assist users in applying these criteria effectively.

Abstract

Misinformation poses a threat to democracy and to people's health. Reliability criteria for news websites can help people identify misinformation. But despite their importance, there has been no empirically substantiated list of criteria for distinguishing reliable from unreliable news websites. We identify reliability criteria, describe how they are applied in practice, and compare them to prior work. Based on our analysis, we distinguish between manipulable and less manipulable criteria and compare politically diverse laypeople as end users and journalists as expert users. We discuss 11 widely recognized criteria, including the following 6 criteria that are difficult to manipulate: content, political alignment, authors, professional standards, what sources are used, and a website's reputation. Finally, we describe how technology may be able to support people in applying these criteria in practice to assess the reliability of websites.