Presage criteria for blog credibility assessment using Rasch analysis / Sharifah Aliman, Saadiah Yahya and Syed Ahmad Aljunid

Credibility is an entrance path to trust model environment and its impact is
so tremendous to the blogosphere and real world. The natural unique of blogs
features compared with ordinary websites, the rise of information propagation
through blogs and the scarcity of blog credibility research have sparked the
impetus to investigate blog credibility assessment. This paper presents an
exploratory study to identify credibility factors used by local blog users in
assessing blogs. Our survey respondents are from local university that consisting
of academic staff and students who are computer and Internet literate. Data was
analyzed using person-item distribution map (PIDM) Rasch analysis. The results
indicated that 75% credibility criteria, which was validated using misfit item, are
preferable for assessing blog credibility. However, only 46% credibility criteria,
which was validated using person gap difference, are acceptable. It also shows
that update blog content, reputation of blog authors as well as recognition and
performance of blog site are inapt criteria to assess blog credibility. Inspite, most
of our credibility criteria are fit to formulate our new blog credibility model.
Our study also suggests that Rasch analysis is significantly worthy to validate
criteria that most of previous researches employed descriptive statistics and
factor analytic approach’.