Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels
Americans are pervasively exposed to social media, news, and online content. Some of this content is designed to be deliberately deceptive and manipulative. However, it is interspersed amongst other content from friends and family, advertising, and legitimate news. Filtering content violates key soc...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Behavioral Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/3/59 |
| _version_ | 1797472852049395712 |
|---|---|
| author | Jeremy Straub Matthew Spradling |
| author_facet | Jeremy Straub Matthew Spradling |
| author_sort | Jeremy Straub |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Americans are pervasively exposed to social media, news, and online content. Some of this content is designed to be deliberately deceptive and manipulative. However, it is interspersed amongst other content from friends and family, advertising, and legitimate news. Filtering content violates key societal values of freedom of expression and inquiry. Taking no action, though, leaves users at the mercy of individuals and groups who seek to use both single articles and complex patterns of content to manipulate how Americans consume, act, work, and even think. Warning labels, which do not block content but instead aid the user in making informed consumption decisions, have been proposed as a potential solution to this dilemma. Ideally, they would respect the autonomy of users to determine what media they consume while combating intentional deception and manipulation through its identification to the user. This paper considers the perception of Americans regarding the use of warning labels to alert users to potentially deceptive content. It presents the results of a population representative national study and analysis of perceptions in terms of key demographics. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:07:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b1f99e9793f24d8f957cda73a9eba1ec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-328X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:07:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Behavioral Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-b1f99e9793f24d8f957cda73a9eba1ec2023-11-24T00:29:17ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2022-02-011235910.3390/bs12030059Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning LabelsJeremy Straub0Matthew Spradling1Department of Computer Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USADepartment of Mathematics and Applied Sciences, University of Michigan Flint, Flint, MI 48502, USAAmericans are pervasively exposed to social media, news, and online content. Some of this content is designed to be deliberately deceptive and manipulative. However, it is interspersed amongst other content from friends and family, advertising, and legitimate news. Filtering content violates key societal values of freedom of expression and inquiry. Taking no action, though, leaves users at the mercy of individuals and groups who seek to use both single articles and complex patterns of content to manipulate how Americans consume, act, work, and even think. Warning labels, which do not block content but instead aid the user in making informed consumption decisions, have been proposed as a potential solution to this dilemma. Ideally, they would respect the autonomy of users to determine what media they consume while combating intentional deception and manipulation through its identification to the user. This paper considers the perception of Americans regarding the use of warning labels to alert users to potentially deceptive content. It presents the results of a population representative national study and analysis of perceptions in terms of key demographics.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/3/59online mediawarning labelsfake newssocial mediadeceptive contentage |
| spellingShingle | Jeremy Straub Matthew Spradling Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels Behavioral Sciences online media warning labels fake news social media deceptive content age |
| title | Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels |
| title_full | Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels |
| title_fullStr | Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels |
| title_full_unstemmed | Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels |
| title_short | Americans’ Perspectives on Online Media Warning Labels |
| title_sort | americans perspectives on online media warning labels |
| topic | online media warning labels fake news social media deceptive content age |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/3/59 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jeremystraub americansperspectivesononlinemediawarninglabels AT matthewspradling americansperspectivesononlinemediawarninglabels |