The Guardian's editor-in-chief Katharine Viner queries the news distribution powers of Google and Facebook, and personalisation's impact on readers
The Guardian's editor-in-chief Katharine Viner has questioned the power wielded by Facebook to inform and control the news its readers are served.
Katharine Viner
Speaking at the annual ISBA lunch, Viner offered insights into the publication's recent crowdfunding trial which she spoke about positively, and how it was effectively crowdsourcing news, but it was how readers engaged with news online that the crux of her speech dwelled upon.
She claimed that the web had "given birth to an industry of professional manipulators of the media" who can create their own versions of the truth, with sources of 'news' available from online sources that were not seen as creditable journalism platforms.
Viner quoted President Barack Obama, Upworthy founder Eli Parser and MySociety founder Tom Steinberg among several who had cited viewpoints and also cited Google's search algorithm as another "self-selected silo" of the digital world that because of its personalisation, "never challenges us" or exposes readers to new information.
"The idea of a challenging, wide-open world wide web has been replaced by platforms and publishers who develop products that maximise the amount of time you spend with them, and find clever ways to stop you leaving. That may be great news for advertisers and the platforms themselves – but it’s of real concern to the news industry. It also makes virality a more valuable commodity than quality," warned Viner.
She also spoke about fake news and lies being spun online around world events that were being accepted as facts, citing reporting of the Ebola virus spread as one such occurrence.
"Indeed, they’re often read more widely because they’re wilder than real life and more enticing for sharing. And does it matter anyway? In a world of networked distribution, is anyone responsible for preventing lies from flying around the world and straight into people’s news feeds?"
She added that businesses still measured success online "around clicks" and that advertising was not discriminating enough around the content, with journalists being placed under increasing pressure to deliver traffic as a result.
"I believe the shift to digital publishing can have thrilling consequences for journalism. It has given us new ways of getting stories, telling stories and sharing stories. It has meant new ways to engage with our audiences, opening ourselves up to challenge and debate, and accepting that people who haven’t been trained as journalists can, in Jeff Jarvis’s words, 'perform acts of journalism' and that people can enter the profession through non-traditional routes (although still too few do)."