Islamic information credibility scale development : Factors and indicators validation using fuzzy Delphi technique

Abstract

Social media platforms do not usually demonstrate responsibilities for published content. In recent years, an increasing number of individuals are now serving as sources of information that sparks public concern as it is considered to have lack of online quality control mechanisms. These mechanisms include the credentials of authors and information editorial teams. This paper aims to identify and develop an Islamic information credibility scale to examine the reliability of Islamic postings on social media, by acquiring the experts’ views and agreement on the elements in the proposed model by leveraging the Fuzzy Delphi process. A total of 15 experts from academic and related stakeholders participated in the verification of items through the questionnaire instrument's 7-point linguistic scale by purposive sampling. Outcome of the study indicate that the appropriate criteria to evaluate the credibility of Islamic information on social media incline on the top four indicators, which are of the source of writing, accuracy, authority and authenticity of information. The result demonstrates the importance for referring to the source and content of information i.e., Quran and authentic hadith in the process to evaluate authentic Islamic information posting on social media, as opposed to the influence of the social environment. This study's value lies in its contribution to the conceptualization and development of new Islamic information credibility scale through the screening and selection process of Fuzzy Delphi method approach. In future research, this scale should be explored to test new media credibility, as an emerging and promising approach to identifying and evaluating Islamic new media credibility.