{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T22:34:31Z","timestamp":1767652471045,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,24]],"date-time":"2022-11-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1669248000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JD"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,18]]},"abstract":"Purpose<\/jats:title>This article aims to elaborate the context-sensitive nature of credibility assessment by examining how such judgments are made in online discussion in times of uncertainty caused by Finland's intent to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in spring 2022.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>The empirical findings draw on the qualitative content analysis of 3,324 posts submitted to a Finnish online discussion in February\u2013March 2022. It was examined how the participants of online discussion assess the credibility of information sources referred to in debates on the NATO membership. It is assumed that the believability of the author of information is indicative of his or her expert power, for example based on the credentials of a scholar, while the credibility of information content, for example the provision of factual evidence is indicative of the source's informational power.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Findings<\/jats:title>Political decision-makers, particularly the President of Finland were assessed as most credible information sources, due to their access to confidential knowledge and long-time experience in politics. The credibility assessments differed more strongly while judging the believability of researchers. On the one hand, their expertise was praised; on the other hand, doubts were presented about their partiality. Fellow participants of online discussion were assessed most negatively because information sources of these types are associated with low expert and informational power.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>As the study concentrated on credibility assessments made in a Finnish online discussion group, the findings cannot be extended to concern the credibility judgments occurring information in other contexts.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Originality\/value<\/jats:title>The study is among the first to characterize the role of expert and informational power in credibility assessment in times of uncertainty.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/jd-08-2022-0172","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,22]],"date-time":"2022-11-22T09:34:41Z","timestamp":1669109681000},"page":"30-50","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Assessing the credibility of information sources in times of uncertainty: online debate about Finland's NATO membership"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"79","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9609-3464","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Reijo","family":"Savolainen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,24]]},"reference":[{"issue":"5","key":"key2024010911250090700_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1100","DOI":"10.1108\/JD-10-2018-0161","article-title":"Scottish citizens' perceptions of the credibility of online political \u2018facts\u2019 in the \u2018fake news\u2019 era: an exploratory study","volume":"75","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journal of Documentation"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2024010911250090700_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"477","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1460-2466.2001.tb02892.x","article-title":"Communication and uncertainty management","volume":"51","year":"2001","journal-title":"Journal of Communication"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2024010911250090700_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.22952","article-title":"Early warning information seeking in the 2009 Victorian bushfires","volume":"65","year":"2014","journal-title":"Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology"},{"issue":"7","key":"key2024010911250090700_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1038","DOI":"10.1080\/1369118X.2018.1547411","article-title":"Making sense of credibility in complex information environments: the role of message sidedness, information source, and thinking styles in credibility evaluation online","volume":"23","year":"2020","journal-title":"Information, Communication and Society"},{"key":"key2024010911250090700_ref005","unstructured":"French, J.R.P. and Raven, B. 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