Use and Credibility of YouTube as a Source of Political Information

• In Event: Gimme Some Truth: The Dynamics of Political Misinformation

Abstract

YouTube is one of the most popular platforms on the internet. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly three-quarters of American adults use it, and nearly all (90%) 18-24 year olds do. Many of them (28%) use YouTube as a source of news, which makes it the second most popular social media site for news behind Facebook. And yet, despite its growing prominence and influence, we know very little about YouTube and its purpose in the news media environment. In this paper, we address this important issue by examining the usage and perceived credibility of YouTube play in the news media landscape. We do so with an original survey of adult Americans.

We focus on four research questions. 1) Who uses YouTube for news? 2) What kinds of news media diets do YouTube users consume? 3) What is the source credibility of YouTube, compared to the credibility of other social media and more traditional news outlets? 4) What are the correlates of these assessments, especially as they pertain to the issues of trust in the news, anti-intellectual attitudes, conspiratorial ideation, as well as cognitive skills? Our findings provide a descriptive foundation for future work on understanding YouTube and its role in the news ecosystem.

Authors

• Mark A. Pickup, Simon Fraser University

• Dominik Andrzej Stecula, Colorado State University