An Exploratory Study on How UP, UST and PUP Journalism Students View Rappler as a News Source

Lustre, A. (2015). An Exploratory Study on How UP, UST and PUP Journalism Students View Rappler as a News Source. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. University of the Philippines Diliman: College of Mass Communication.

This study will explore how students and professors from University of the Philippines Diliman, University of Sto. Tomas and Polytechnic University of the Philippines view Rappler’s credibility as a news website. It will use three theories namely Two-Step Flow, Diffusion of Innovations and the Uses and Gratifications as its backbone. With the use of individual interviews and survey, the study aims to evaluate Rappler’s position as a news source vis-à-vis traditional news media.

Rappler is a news website launched in 2012 with Maria Ressa, the former ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs head, as its CEO. Its creators branded it as a “social news network” because it fuses traditional journalism with social media. Aside from this, Rappler aims to inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. With this, the study would like to answer how journalism students and professors respond to this new innovation.

Key Words: Online Journalism, Rappler, Audience Perception

View Thesis: File:An exploratory study on how UP, UST and PUP journalism students view Rappler as a news source.pdf