Review Article Open Access

Facebook credibility: Evidence from Online and Offline Political Participation, Political Contribution, and Platform Efficacy

Abstract

This study seeks to explore how Egyptian adult users assess Facebook credibility and to test political and non-political factors that predict such credibility, using survey data (N=590). Exploratory factor analysis generated four categories of 16 attributes of Facebook credibility; timeliness, transparency, social impact, and independency. Findings show that both the use of political content of Facebook and reliance on it for political information were limited predictors of some categories of Facebook credibility. In addition, users' evaluation of Facebook as an independent medium was only conditioned to their online political participation. On the other hand, users' views on both the efficacy of Facebook and its positive contribution to the community in addition to their active participation of political content on that platform were strong predictors for the four categories of Facebook credibility. Findings also deliberated the underlying causes of predicting demographic variables for some kinds of Facebook credibility.

Mohamed A. Fadl Elhadidi

To read the full article Download Full Article | Visit Full Article