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People who read news on the web tend to trust the gate even if there is no gatekeeper, according to Penn State researchers.

When readers access a story from a credible news source they trust through an online portal, they also tend to trust the portal, said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. Most of these portals use computers, not people, to automatically sort and post stories.

Sundar said this transfer of credibility provides online news portals — Yahoo News and Google News — with most of the benefits, but with little of the costs associated with online publishing.

“A news portal that uses stories from a credible source gets a boost in credibility and might even make money through advertising,” said Sundar. “However, if there is a lawsuit for spreading false information, for example, it’s unlikely that the portal will be named in the suit.”

Sundar said the flow of credibility did not go both ways. He said that reading a low-credibility story on a high-credibility portal did not make the original source more trustworthy.

The researchers, who reported their findings in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, asked a group of 231 students to read online news stories. After reading the stories, the students rated the credibility of the original source and the portal.

The researchers placed banners from Google News, which served as a high credibility portal, and the Drudge Report, which served as a low-credibility portal, on the pages. They also added banners to identify the New York Times — the high-credibility source — and the National Enquirer — the low-credibility source.

The students were significantly more likely to consider a portal credible if the source of the story was trustworthy. The credibility of the portal suffered if the source lacked trustworthiness.

Sundar said that attention to sources depended on the involvement of the reader. When readers were particularly interested in the story, they tended to more thoroughly evaluate all the sources involved in the production and distribution of that news. People who are not interested in the story base their judgments on the credibility of the portal, which is the most immediately visible source.

Sundar, who worked with Hyunjin Kang and Keunmin Bae, both doctoral students in communications, and Shaoke Zhang, doctoral student in information sciences and technology, said that the way credibility is transferred from site to site shows the complexity of the relationship between online news readers and sources.

Evaluating credibility is difficult on the web because there are often chains of news sources for a story, Sundar said. For example, a person may find a story on an online news portal, forward the information to another friend through email, who then posts it on a social network. The identity of the original source may or may not be carried along this chain to the final reader.

“With traditional media it’s fairly clear who the source is,” Sundar said. “But in online media, it gets very murky because there are so many sources.”

The Korea Science and Engineering Foundation of South Korea supported this work.

Contact: Matt Swayne
mls29@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State

from: http://chattahbox.com/us/2012/01/31/online-news-portals-get-credibility-boost-from-trusted-sources/

Internet users are increasingly asked to register with a user name and password before being able to access the content of many sites. In their upcoming Ergonomics in Design article, “A Passport to UX – Design of Password Practices,” human factors/ergonomics researchers Soolmaz Moshfeghian and Young Sam Ryu identify impediments to efficient password creation and provide design strategies for enhancing the user experience.

Because there is no standard method for setting up passwords, each Web site employs its own set of requirements and restrictions. After investigating the pros and cons of design-related features of the requirement and restriction practices of 90 popular Web sites, the authors found that more than half the sites failed to display password guidance prior to the first attempt. Users may receive multiple error messages if their chosen passwords do not line up with system requirements, which can lead to confusion and frustration for the user and increased operating expenses for system administrators.

The authors offer a number of recommendations for Web designers seeking to improve the user experience: Provide users with password requirements prior to their first attempt; use clear and concise language to communicate the password requirements; present, at a minimum, length and character requirements; and avoid placing password requirements in the entry box.

“This study helps us gain more insight into the current state of password practices and helps create more intuitive and empathic interactions,” said Moshfeghian. “Intuitive password practices lead to increased user trust and thus user sustainability. In short, the optimal goal is to humanize interfaces, make them as intuitive as possible, and bridge the gap between users and interfaces.”

Enhancing user experience through effective password practices can have many benefits. A more user-friendly registration process may produce a larger number of successfully registered accounts, which can translate into increased sales and a more recognizable brand. Fewer failed registration attempts can result in reduced system maintenance, security, and password recovery costs.

For more information on this article, contact HFES Communications Director Lois Smith (lois@hfes.org; 310/394-1811).

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the world’s largest nonprofit individual-member, multidisciplinary scientific association for human factors/ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,500 members globally. HFES members include psychologists and other scientists, designers, and engineers, all of whom have a common interest in designing systems and equipment to be safe and effective for the people who operate and maintain them. Watch science news stories about other HF/E topics at the HFES Web site. “Human Factors and Ergonomics: People-Friendly Design Through Science and Engineering”

Plan to attend the HFES 56th Annual Meeting, October 22-26: http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESMeetings/2012annualmeeting.html

Contact: Lois Smith
lois@hfes.org
310-394-1811
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

from: http://chattahbox.com/technology/2012/01/31/your-password-is-invalid-improving-website-password-practices/

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from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/29/interview_with_treasury_secretary_timothy_geithner_112959.html