Public Perceptions of “Fake News” in the United States and Japan

Abstract

Public Perceptions of "Fake News" in the United States and JapanConcerns about the spread of misinformation and its implications for democratic participation have increased worldwide. The concept of fake news and its implications largely has been studied within a western context. There are few studies that examine empirically how fake news and misinformation are manifested in East Asian democracies. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the way that fake news is perceived in Japan and the United States. While research on misinformation has proliferated, much of it focuses on the message source. Studies primarily treat the audience as a target that is subject to manipulation. This paper views the audience in more active terms as it examines the public's understanding of fake news in the American and Japanese contexts. The paper addresses the following questions in comparative perspective: What does the term "fake news" mean to the public? To what extent does the public perceive misleading information to be present in media coverage of politics and elections? What sources do Japanese and American voters use for political information? Where are Japanese and American voters exposed to misleading information? Finally, how do voters' views of misleading information differ based upon their political orientations, such as political interest, party identification, and support for leaders, and their media use habits?

Analysis of the current application of blockchain in social media

“…Figure 1. Impact of fake news in the United States as of December 2020 [5] With the data tracing feature of blockchain, the fake news situation can be reduced. As Figure 2 shows, each block will contain the previous hash value and transaction information.…”