Epistemic Overconfidence in Algorithmic News Selection

The process of news consumption has undergone great changes over the past decade: Information is now available in an ever-increasing amount from a plethora of sources. Recent work suggests that most people would favor algorithmic solutions over human editors. This stands in contrast to public and scholarly debate about the pitfalls of algorithmic news selection—i.e., the so-called “filter bubbles.” This study therefore investigates reasons and motivations which might lead people to prefer algorithmic gatekeepers over human ones. We expect that people have more algorithmic appreciation when consuming news to pass time, entertain oneself, or out of escapism than when using news to keep up-to-date with politics (H1). Secondly, we hypothesize the extent to which people are confident in their own cognitive abilities to moderate that relationship: When people are overconfident in their own capabilities to estimate the relevance of information, they are more likely to have higher levels of algorithmic appreciation, due to the third person effect (H2). For testing those two pre-registered hypotheses, we conducted an online survey with a sample of 268 US participants and replicated our study using a sample of 384 Dutch participants. The results show that the first hypothesis cannot be supported by our data. However, a positive interaction between overconfidence and algorithmic appreciation for the gratification of surveillance (i.e., gaining information about the world, society, and politics) was found in both samples. Thereby, our study contributes to our understanding of the underlying reasons people have for choosing different forms of gatekeeping when selecting news.

The Structure and Functions of the Press in New Zealand

<p>This thesis describes the general functions of the New Zealand news media system and the structure, organisation and control of both the daily press and broadcasting and television services in New Zealand. In order to analyse the performance of daily newspapers in detail, a methodology is laid down for the quantitative description of the subject content of newspapers. A sample of the wire copy transmitted to daily newspapers in New Zealand by the New Zealand Press Association is analysed and a study is made of the news selection and display practices observed by 16 daily newspapers in their handling of this material. Further samples of the content of the same 16 daily papers are then analysed in order to obtain characteristic subject content descriptions and to provide material for a generalised discussion of the way in which the newspapers appear to be exercising their functions. This leads to a treatment of the problems facing the New Zealand daily press and a brief outline of the role of the New Zealand Press Association in the New Zealand news media system, as well as a discussion of the possibilities that exist for the improved education and training of journalists. The work then concludes with a set of appendices in which the full texts of various documents are reproduced, as well as a bibliography of literature relevant to the general field of research on the New Zealand mass media.</p>

The Structure and Functions of the Press in New Zealand

<p>This thesis describes the general functions of the New Zealand news media system and the structure, organisation and control of both the daily press and broadcasting and television services in New Zealand. In order to analyse the performance of daily newspapers in detail, a methodology is laid down for the quantitative description of the subject content of newspapers. A sample of the wire copy transmitted to daily newspapers in New Zealand by the New Zealand Press Association is analysed and a study is made of the news selection and display practices observed by 16 daily newspapers in their handling of this material. Further samples of the content of the same 16 daily papers are then analysed in order to obtain characteristic subject content descriptions and to provide material for a generalised discussion of the way in which the newspapers appear to be exercising their functions. This leads to a treatment of the problems facing the New Zealand daily press and a brief outline of the role of the New Zealand Press Association in the New Zealand news media system, as well as a discussion of the possibilities that exist for the improved education and training of journalists. The work then concludes with a set of appendices in which the full texts of various documents are reproduced, as well as a bibliography of literature relevant to the general field of research on the New Zealand mass media.</p>

Nudging towards diversity: A theoretical framework for facilitating diverse news consumption through recommender design

Growing concern about the democratic impact of automatically curated news platforms urges us to reconsider how such platforms should be designed. We propose a theoretical framework for personalised diversity nudges that can stimulate diverse news consumption on the individual level. To examine potential benefits and limitations of existing diversity nudges, we conduct an interdisciplinary literature review that synthesizes theoretical work on news selection mechanisms with hands-on tools and implementations from the fields of computer science and recommender systems. Based thereupon, we propose five diversity nudges that researchers and practitioners can build on. We provide a theoretical motivation of why, when, and for whom such nudges could be effective, critically reflect on their potential backfire effects and the need for algorithmic transparency, and sketch out a research agenda for diversity-aware news recommender design. Thereby, we develop concrete, theoretically grounded avenues toward facilitating diverse news consumption on algorithmically curated platforms.

Implementasi Program Analisis Monitoring Berita Di Diskominfotik DKI Jakarta

The background of this research is the News Monitoring Analysis (AMB) program held by the DKI Jakarta Province Diskominfotik. This program is a new product at the DKI Jakarta Diskominfotik. Thus, the objectives of this study are: To analyze the implementation of the News Monitoring Analysis Program (AMB) in the management of print media news at the DKI Jakarta Information and Communications Communications and Statistics Agency (Diskominfotik) on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. The method used is a qualitative research method by observing News Monitoring Analysis Program (AMB) on managing print media news. The analytical method used is descriptive qualitative method. The data used are primary and secondary data. The primary data collection method is by conducting interviews. The results of this study indicate that the implementation of the News Monitoring Analysis (AMB) program in the management of print media news starts from the process of news gathering, news selection, news processing and news analysis. Print media news collected in the AMB Program has been digitized apart from being a website. Thus, the suggestion from the results of this study is that DKI Jakarta Diskominfotik represented from the AMB Program develops an application in the Google Playstore and Apple App Store, so that print media news in the AMB program can be more easily accessed with news information with the appropriate display on mobile phones.

What drives selection of online children’s news articles?

Individual news consumers’ decisions to select specific news articles online are an important part of the present journalistic landscape, spurring scholars’ interest in ‘selective exposure’ and the factors that influence news selection. In the present study, we investigated predictors of young news consumers’ self-selection of individual news articles. We used a dataset containing information on upwards of 18,000 news articles that were published in the smartphone and tablet application of the Dutch children’s news television program. The dataset contained the headline of each published news article and the number of views that the article generated in the application. This made it possible to investigate which characteristics of the headlines were predictive of children’s selection of the article, that is, number of views. In particular, we investigated the effects of emotion and exemplification on selection. The results showed that anxiety-related information and the use of exemplars significantly increased an article’s likelihood of being selected by young news consumers. Information related to anger, sadness and positive affect did not significantly predict selection.

Experiencing Algorithms: How Young People Understand, Feel About, and Engage With Algorithmic News Selection on Social Media

The news that young people consume is increasingly subject to algorithmic curation. Yet, while numerous studies explore how algorithms exert power in citizens’ everyday life, little is known about how young people themselves perceive, learn about, and deal with news personalization. Considering the interactions between algorithms and users from an user-centric perspective, this article explores how young people make sense of, feel about, and engage with algorithmic news curation on social media and when such everyday experiences contribute to their algorithmic literacy. Employing in-depth interviews in combination with the walk-through method and think-aloud protocols with a diverse group of 22 young people aged 16–26 years, it addresses three current methodological challenges to studying algorithmic literacy: first, the lack of an established baseline about how algorithms operate; second, the opacity of algorithms within everyday media use; and third, limitations in technological vocabularies that hinder young people in articulating their algorithmic encounters. It finds that users’ sense-making strategies of algorithms are context-specific, triggered by expectancy violations and explicit personalization cues. However, young people’s intuitive and experience-based insights into news personalization do not automatically enable young people to verbalize these, nor does having knowledge about algorithms necessarily stimulate users to intervene in algorithmic decisions.

The use of user-generated comments and their effects on the perception of news: An experimental study

A review of literature suggests that very few studies have examined how selection, deletion and inclusion of comments in news articles affect audience perception of news credibility, newsworthiness and trustworthiness. Using an experimental methodology, this study seeks to understand how journalistic use of UGCs influences audience perception of news credibility, newsworthiness and trustworthiness. The study also sought to espouse on the two-step flow theory and its relevance to online media; with particular reference to news selection. Four hundred participants from selected Nigerian universities constitute the sample of this study and the findings showed that comments use influenced audience perception of news credibility, newsworthiness and trustworthiness. Also, the findings lent credence to developing research that seeks to prove that the two-step flow story is relevant to online media. The findings of this study showed evidence of the two-step flow of information.