قادر باستانی

The present study examines the validity of the source in the most visited news channels of Telegram. The research method is descriptive-analytical and conducted by content analysis. The statistical population includes all news posts in Telegram messengers from October 2017 to March 2018. 5 news channels and 3160 news items were selected Using stratified sampling method and weekly statistics. The findings showed that some unreliable news channels had a large number of visitors and a high forwarding rate, despite a large number of fake news outlets. Also, the audience of Persian news channels has visited and forwarded fake news more. Fake news, with an average of more than 97,000 views and forwarding, has been circulating more than true news. The syndrome of low-validity of most visited media is a sign of a chronic anomaly in the Iranian media environment that will have social, economic, cultural and security effects on society.

The growth of fake news in cyberspace has given renewed attention to the source credibility in modern media and has brought modern humans into the "era of credibility of information" from the "information age". The present study intends to investigate what factors have influenced the source's credibility in the new media, in order to provide a platform for coping with the publication of fake news. To this end, the researcher conducted a semi-structured interview with content producers in the Persian news channels of the TELEGRAM messenger and communications science specialist, and, using the method of Thematic Analysis, 36 items were cited based on the statements presented in the interviews, Identify and categorize them in six main categories. The sample size used for the interview is 25 people. Major categories include "evolution in the concept of information credibility", "Commodification of news and advertising", "the decline of social responsibility and professionalism," "the new approach to the production of style and content of news," "change In the news values "and" Changes in the traditional concept of the gatekeeping of news ", was obtained in the direction of the research. It has been suggested that media policymakers, while upgrading the user / audience media literacy,