Increasingly Web users are generating and sharing content online in diverse ways, sharing photographs and videos, rating and reviewing products and services, and blogging about their interests and everyday life activities. One of the consequences of increasing user participation on the Web is that credibility assessment is now situated in diverse online activities and contexts.

The Credibility 2.0 Project funded by the MacArthur Foundation (September 2008 – August 2011) investigates what new sets of heuristics have emerged in the participatory Web environment (Web 2.0). The research activities involved in this project include:

1. Web-based online information activity diary survey
2. Interviews with participatory Web users
3. Experimental studies to collect behavioral data with respect to the application of credibility assessment heuristics in the processes of information seeking and content creation.

Given the changing Web environment, the proposed study extends existing credibility research in four ways — by:

1. Characterizing different types of Web users and identifying participatory Web users based on their
   participation in variety of activities including content creation and mediation
2. Examining the relationship between Users’ participation levels on the Web and their credibility assessment concerns and heuristics
3. Understanding credibility assessment of user-generated content contributions in the domain of news with respect to people’s selecting, posting, commenting, and other contributing behaviors on the Web
4. Making a direct comparison between the credibility judgments of active participatory Web users and those of general information seekers