News Media Image: A Typology of Audience Perspectives

Abstract

The premise of this study is the timeliness of interdisciplinary approaches in news media research, specifically including the perceptions of news audiences. Using a multidisciplinary literature review and qualitative and quantitative analysis, this study adopted a multidimensional construct—news media image—to investigate how news audiences perceive news media organizations. The respondents studied here, who were representative of the general U.S. population, referenced the news media in general in their evaluation of news outlets. Results of focus groups and online surveys (factor analyses) indicated that news audiences evaluate the content and practices of news media overall based on perceptions related to seven specific criteria: usefulness, credibility, empathy, personality, usability, news selection bias, and social responsibility. Image perception encompasses rational, cognitive judgment, and affective evaluation. That news audience respondents commonly employed multiple evaluation criteria related to news media points to the need to broaden the scope of journalistic research in the direction of a new heuristic. Examining news media image, that is, investigating how “the general public” views news media as an institution in a continuously changing—and challenging—news media landscape adds value to media research. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis used in this study suggest that a positive news media image can enhance audience satisfaction and, subsequently, loyalty.