| Algorithm technology has been applied to news production for nearly a decade.Whether news consumers recognize and accept this emerging technology not only matters for its futural development,but also serves as a breakthrough point for scholars in journalism and communication to study Human Machine Communication.The two major research paradigms of algorithm journalism respectively focus on testing the actual quality of news produced by algorithms,as well as discussing how algorithms are perceived and recognized ontologically.Based on the latter paradigm,this study tries to explore readers’ perceived credibility of both the algorithm itself and the news with algorithm authorship.The Dual-Process Model indicates that heuristic cues(e.g.news writers,news organizations)and systematic cues(e.g.news interpretive level)can respectively trigger heuristic and systematic cognition in information processing.Based on this model,this study aims at solving three major research questions.First,how will the algorithm authorship cues influence the perceived news credibility as a heuristic cue?Second,how will news organization cues and algorithm arthorship acues have an interactive impact on perceived news credibility? Thirdly,how will the news interpretive level,as a heuristic cue,interact with algorithm authorship cues on perceived news credibility? This study conducted a 2(purported writer: algorithm vs.human)x 2(purported news organization: one with higher credibility vs.one with relatively lower credibility)x 2(news interpretive level: low interpretability vs.high interpretability)between-subject online experiment(N = 396)and had three major findings.First,the perceived credibility of an algorithm writer is significantly lower than that of a human writer.The algorithm is considered credible for its objectivity but trustless for its lack of realism and professionalism.However,the algorithm authorship will not lower the credibility of the news itself.Second,the organization cue is such a powerful heuristic cue that it mediates the effect of news writers on news credibility.When the media is more trusted,the use of algorithm authorship cues reduces the perceived news credibility,while for a less trusted media,adopting algorithm authorship can enhance the news perceived credibility.Finally,a significant three-way interaction effect is found within news interpretability,news writers,and news media.The algorithm is regarded as more suitable for news of lower interpretive level.Especially when the media is considered less trustworthy,the adoption of an algorithm for interpretative news further weakens the perceived news credibility.Empirically,this study helps eliminate concerns for news organizations to adopt algorithms on news production,and clarify the feasibility of this technology in lowexplanatory contexts.Moreover,the findings help provide optimization suggestions on how algorithm writers can be presented to readers on news pages in a more efficient way. |
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