The consequences of perceived media influences have been examined in numerous studies on the third-person effect (Davison, 1983) and the influence of presumed media influence approach (Gunther & Storey, 2003). One consequence, namely the support for media censorship, is viewed as the “gold standard” (Cohen & Weimann, 2008, p. 386): Individuals demand to limit the power of the media because they perceive a strong and negative media impact on other people. Although this association has been examined frequently, there are still research gaps. On the one hand, previous studies have only rarely dealt with respondents who were in a position to actually decide upon or implement restrictions outside the respondents’ own private sphere (e.g., parents; Hoffner & Buchanan, 2002). People with political authority have the power for this kind of action. On the other hand, previous studies have, in most cases, examined censorship demands with respect to traditional mass media; online media were hardly ever taken into account.
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Dohle et al. (2013) studied this question.