• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 1, 2008

Despite the rapid rise of online media, television, followed by newspapers and radio, remain the most credible sources of news and information, according to a nationally representative survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for online communications marketing and content distribution firm ARAnet.

The study, which was conducted by phone Sept. 4-7, concurs the results of an online survey conducted by MediaVest last month, which found similar results among U.S. voters who generally found traditional media outlets to be a more credible and influential source of news about the 2008 presidential campaign than online sites, blogs and social media networks (MediaDailyNews Sept. 29)).

The ARAnet study, which surveyed 1,005 adults, assigned credibility scores ranging from one for "not at all credible" to 10 for "extremely credible" to seven types of media. TV ranked most credible with a score of 6.6, followed by a 6.3 for daily newspapers, a 6.0 for radio, and a 5.6 for online.

Interestingly, online was deemed a more credible source of news and information than magazines, which ranked sixth with a score of 4.6, behind weekly community newspapers (5.2), but ahead of "free shopper" publications (3.5).

Consumers also reported getting a greater percentage of their news and information (35%) from television, followed by daily newspapers (23.5%). The respondents reported getting just 1.6% of their news and information from magazines.