Abstract
As digital media platforms increasingly rely on personal data for content recommendation and targeted advertising, data transparency and user control become critical factors in maintaining the trust of media consumers. This study investigates the extent to which (not) displaying personal data and the (non)ability to control these personal data, influence media consumers’ trust in media. Trust in media is examined on three levels: the macro level focuses on trust in the media organization, the meso level addresses trust in the media service (in this study, a media streaming platform), and the micro level handles trust in the privacy dashboard (a tool to visualize data use and processing practices) behind the streaming platform. A quasi-experimental design was used, involving 511 participants from Flanders (northern part of Belgium) who were exposed to various privacy dashboard configurations and who had to interact with a fictional media streaming service. We found no effect of transparency and control on the different levels of trust. Shifting a stable construct like trust is difficult, especially when the trust levels in the public broadcaster and its media service are already high. Trust was found to be more influenced by prior experience and attitudinal factors than by demographic characteristics. Preliminary insights suggest that processed data (derived and inferred) require accompanying control mechanisms to preserve trust, whereas unprocessed data (provided and observed) achieve higher trust without additional controls. Future research should consider longitudinal designs and additional trust dimensions to further understand the dynamics of trust in digital media environments.
Presenters
Emma DevosScientific Researcher, Research Group for Media, Innovation and Contemporary Technologies, University of Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen (nl), Belgium
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
MEDIA TRUST, PRIVACY, PERSONAL DATA, PRIVACY DASHBOARD, TRANSPARENCY, USER CONTROL
