Salaudeen, MisturaMisturaSalaudeenDr. LI Wenshu, JessicaJessicaDr. LI WenshuGuo, SteveSteveGuo2025-10-022025-10-022019Salaudeen, M., Li, W., & Guo, S. (7-11 Jul 2019). Influence of media exposure on perceptions of media credibility: The mediating role of political knowledge. International Association for Media and Communication Research 2019, Madrid, Spain.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/25817With the rapid advances in new media technologies, rise of partisan reporting and rampant presence of fake news, the need to investigate public perceptions of media credibility has assumed new social relevance and historical urgency. This study examines the extent to which different patterns of media exposure influence credibility judgment. On the assumption that rational evaluations are information based, we elaborate the relationship by looking at the mediating role of current event knowledge. The study is contextualized in Hong Kong where local print media and their audiences are the main units of observation. Operationally, at the news consumption end, we construct a scale ranging from non-users through skimpy scanners to avid readers. At the perceptual end, we separate credibility evaluations into three categories: perceived public interest of the media, perceived information quality produced by the media, and perceived metropolitan connection of the newspaper. We propose that regular exposure to newspapers is likely to lead to high knowledge of current political issues and consequently lead to poor perceptions of newspaper credibility. Analyses of valid data from a random sample survey of 529 local Hong Kong residents reveal several interesting findings: 1) There is a significant positive correlation between the frequency of respondents’ newspaper readership pattern and their level of political knowledge, albeit at a superficial level, suggesting that regular readers of newspapers in Hong Kong are more conversant with current events than less frequent readers and non-readers of newspapers. 2) There is a significant negative correlation between respondents’ level of political knowledge and their perceptions of newspapers’ credibility along the dimensions of public interest and metropolitan connection. 3) However, we found a non-significant relationship between respondents’ political knowledge and their perceptions of newspapers’ information quality. These findings indicate that respondents with high knowledge of current political issues have poor perceptions about the public interest and metropolitan connection of newspapers, thereby judging the credibility of newspapers harshly. Also, we deduce that the more time respondents spend reading newspapers, the more knowledge of local issues they have, as opposed to their limited knowledge of non-local events. Furthermore, there is no direct relationship between respondents’ level of political knowledge and the quality of information disseminated by Hong Kong newspapers. Thus, political knowledge mediated the extent to which respondents evaluated the credibility of newspapers in Hong Kong. Theoretical and social implications are discussed.enConference Paper