Quotes and credibility: How news post approach shapes news bias and credibility perceptions across party lines

This study tested how storytelling approaches in a Facebook news post shape perceptions of news credibility. Online experiment participants (n = 921) were randomly assigned to view a post written in one of five styles: quoting only a Republican lawmaker, only a Democratic lawmaker, both partisan lawmakers, contextual information without quotes, or quoting a government official. Results found a partisan hostile media perception where Republicans rated all storytelling approaches as less credible than Democrats.

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Publication Details

Journal
News Research Journal
Published
2026-04-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/30497841261440467
Primary Topic
Social Media and Politics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Quotes and credibility: How news post approach shapes news bias and credibility perceptions across party lines

Shuting Yao, Gina M. Masullo
News Research Journal
Social Media and Politics
article

Quotes and credibility: How news post approach shapes news bias and credibility perceptions across party lines

Shuting Yao, Gina M. Masullo
article en

Abstract

This study tested how storytelling approaches in a Facebook news post shape perceptions of news credibility. Online experiment participants (n = 921) were randomly assigned to view a post written in one of five styles: quoting only a Republican lawmaker, only a Democratic lawmaker, both partisan lawmakers, contextual information without quotes, or quoting a government official. Results found a partisan hostile media perception where Republicans rated all storytelling approaches as less credible than Democrats.

News Research Journal
Faculty of Media (SI), The University of Texas at Austin (US)
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Moody College of Communication
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Social Media and Politics
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