Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2015, Journalism (Communication)

Satirical news from websites such as onion.com have attracted news consumers into believing these stories as real. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the factors that attract news consumers into believing satirical news as true. This thesis examines content and source cues for levels of satire and source reputability to investigate their effects on perceived believability of satirical news across genres. In experiment one, 80 participants viewed manipulated news stories measured as high and low on satire, while in experiment two, 64 participants viewed manipulated satirical stories with high-reputable and low-reputable sources from entertainment and science genres. Results show perceived believability is different across news genres. Satire in science stories is not easily perceived as high-satire science news is perceived more believable than high-satire entertainment news. Source reputability did not affect believability of satirical science news. Other findings and implications are discussed.

Committee: Kalyango Yusuf Jr. (Committee Chair); Jatin Srivastava (Committee Member); Hans Meyer (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism