There is confusion between the concept of honesty and credibility arguing that their meaning is the same. ‘Credibility; is derived from the truth which means evidence of honesty, while ‘honesty’ means not lying and matching reality. The study of credibility begins globally at the end of the fifties of the second millennium to see the decline and refrain from reading newspapers, while it was studied in the Arab world in 1987. Global studies find several meanings of the concept of ‘credibility’ such as accuracy, completeness, transfer facts, impartiality, balance, justice, objectivity, trust, honesty, respect the freedom of individuals and community, and taking into account the traditions and norms.
Credibility has two dimensions: the credibility of the newspapers that deals with readers, and the credibility of journalism dealing with the source. There are three levels of ratification: initial ratification, ratification stemming from the content-communication, and final ratification.
The research concludes that there are four levels of credibility:
1- Level one represents the credibility of various media means
2- Level two measures the credibility of media tools
3- Level three focuses on discrimination and differentiation among media means by making a comparison between the traditional media and new technological one.
4- Level four measures audiences’ awareness of the ratification of media.
The importance of the study sheds light on a strong or weak decline in the credibility of the press or TV or online journalism, as well as on the strong competition among various media. The researcher finds that there are many factors affect the credibility; some is related to the source or means or communicator or the existing content or the importance of the study.
