S. Shyam Sundar and Clifford Nass review in this article the concept of “source,” proposing a new typology to be used – especially in research dealing with online contents. Their concept of the source, and their proposed typology is based a.) on ontological rationale, and b.) on the fact that different types of source were found to affect the perception of content – so, the same content is perceived differently if attributed to different types of sources.
The suggested typology is as follows:
- source as the visible gatekeeper – presenter
- source as the media technology that delivers content
- source as the receiver choosing content
- source as others – some audience – choosing content
This is different to the conceptualization that I outlined in my research. And I have formulated some reserves about this typology, so let’s go through all the proposed types.
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