Journalists step in where platforms have no answers
In this cross posting from 360info, Google and Facebook are hoping to improve their news algorithms to provide a more balanced view. Media industry initiatives could have the solution they need. Eleonora Maria Mazzoli reports.
All your news is curated by unseen hands. Content moderation and content curation measures are two sides of the same coin, and they sit at the heart of digital intermediary services. Soft behavioural nudges behind those measures can channel Google Search and Facebook audience choices in one direction or the other, through processes that law expert Karen Yeung describes as “subtle, unobtrusive yet extraordinarily powerful”.
Questions about which content the public should see have always been part of media and communication discussions. Newsrooms and parliaments alike echo with debates about free speech and what content is in the ‘public interest’. And while governments mull how to intervene with the digital giants to preserve democratic institutions and provide diverse, trustworthy news to the public, the media industry is attempting to address the problem from within.
Industry standards and certifications have been floated as solutions to journalism’s trust issues. (The Climate Reality Project, Unsplash)
