Social Sciences Journal
Vol. 3 No. 2 (2026): August

The Effect of Journalist Credibility on Source Openness in News Interviews

Alvisyah Riani (Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu)
Niky Rahmada Ilahi (Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu)
Rehan Al Faruq (Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu)



Article Info

Publish Date
21 Aug 2026

Abstract

Journalist credibility is central to news interviewing because it shapes sources' trust and willingness to provide information. This study examines the effect of journalist credibility on source openness in news interviews. A quantitative survey was conducted with all 30 journalists working at BE TV and RRI Bengkulu, selected through total sampling. Data were collected using a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed with SmartPLS 4. The measurement model met validity and reliability criteria: all outer loadings exceeded 0.70; Average Variance Extracted values were 0.594 for journalist credibility and 0.662 for source openness; the Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio was 0.824; Cronbach's alpha values were 0.831 and 0.872; and composite reliability values were 0.880 and 0.907. Hypothesis testing produced a t-statistic of 4.676 and p < 0.001, indicating a significant effect of journalist credibility on source openness. The R-squared value of 0.555 shows that journalist credibility explains 55.5% of the variance in source openness. The findings confirm that journalists' expertise, trustworthiness, and interpersonal attractiveness encourage sources to provide more honest, complete, and in-depth information.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

SOSJ

Publisher

Subject

Economics, Econometrics & Finance Education Environmental Science Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Law, Crime, Criminology & Criminal Justice Social Sciences Other

Description

Social Sciences Journal welcomes high quality contributions investigating topics in the fields of Communication Sciences, Economics, Psychology, Law, Education, Political Science, Sociology, Administrative Sciences, Social Work and many more, from theoretical, empirical and critical perspectives. ...