Evaluation of the survey.
Interviewing is a fundamental methodology for both quantitative and qualitative social research and evaluation. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions it was not possible to conduct face to face interviews, which is why I did an online survey. The survey results can be found at the following link:
https://de.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-JZMM5FD57/
To summarize the outcome of the survey almost all of the 22 participant have encountered misinformation at some point and only a few are not sure about it, but when it comes to labeled content there are different opinions. Some of the participants feel like these labels are helpful and others do not trust them. They are not transparent enough and some of them also do not trust the correctness of the labelling.
However, when asked what additional information should be presented, some just answered: “Author and Date”. Only a few of them said that sources and other things like the domain ending and an SSL certificate should be included or present as well. When asked about the influence of the design of information on the trustworthiness 14 out of 18 answers stated that design does make a difference. Surprisingly one person said that when the design of information is too bold or striking it seems less trustworthy. Another answer was that it does not matter because false information can be designed properly as well.
To conclude this survey it seems that a lot of people have encountered false or misleading information and some of them do not trust online available information at all. Even if there is additional information given about a posting or if there is an independent factchecking site linked there still occurs major mistrust because it is not transparent enough.
