Jordanians' attitudes toward the credibility of news on Jordanian public and private television channels

Abstract

     This field study aims to uncover Jordanians' attitudes toward the credibility of Jordanian public and private television channels in their news coverage, and the relationship between the ownership pattern of these channels and the credibility of the news they provide. It also explores the differences between sample members' assessments of the credibility of news on Jordanian public and private television channels based on their demographic characteristics. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach along with the comparative approach. It also adopted a stratified random sample of (1500) individuals from the study community, which is represented by Jordanian citizens aged 18 years and above, numbering (3.8 million people). To achieve the study objectives, the researcher prepared a questionnaire to examine the study variables, which was distributed to the individuals of the study sample, and all of them were valid for analysis.

     The study reached several important results, most notably:

- Sample members' assessments of all dimensions of television news credibility on both channels were at mediun levels. However, the arithmetic means of their assessments of the credibility dimensions were slightly higher in favor of the private Roya TV channel, with the exception of the dimension of "professional and media-savvy news presentation," which was in favor of the Jordanian satellite channel.

- Sample members' assessments of the dimensions of "freedom," "independence," "trust," and "neutrality" were the lowest among their assessments of the other dimensions of credibility.

- There were no statistically significant differences at the level of (0.05) between the characteristics of the sample members and their assessment of the dimensions of news credibility in each of the two channels, with the exception of the gender variable in the case of the private Roya channel, which was in favor of females.

     The study proposed a set of recommendations, the most prominent of which were:

- The need for the channels included in the study sample to work to enhance the dimensions of credibility, particularly freedom, independence, trust, neutrality, and objectivity in their news coverage.

- The necessity of reviewing the laws regulating media work, especially audio-visual media, and other related laws, and making the necessary reforms to them so that they become incentives for improving media performance in form and content, in accordance with the principles of democracy and international human rights standards.