Algorithms and Objectivity
Media and journalism fields in the society are mainly based on providing ethical behaviors and information needed. Objectivity is considered an important factor in the media field. Also, truth is an important ethical factor in the journalists’ job. For this reason, “Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.” (Kovach & Rosenstiel, n.d). Also, the journalists’ job is to deliver the news as it is without being biased and without providing his/her opinion. Journalism objectivity is achieved through providing facts free of opinions and avoiding information that is biased and fake (Ward, 2009). Being objective should be correlated with the truth. It is a process where the reporter follows a set of rules that guides him/her to act impartial when it comes to reporting the truth (Ward, n.d). However, does the algorithmic systems affecting the ethical principles of media platforms?
In a diverse world, the common platform to communicate is social media. Social media is the place where can get their news and information from. For this reason, it is the most convenient place to share your thoughts, opinions and views over any topic. What makes the social media platforms this popular, is that anyone could have an access to use it. By people giving their opinions, this will create a diverse world full of different opinions. As people give their opinions and views over a certain topic on social media, there are certain ethical principles that cannot be skipped. Those limits and principles are set by algorithms. Similar to the journalists’ job where there are ethical principles that cannot be crossed. Algorithm is a set of instructions performed by a machine to figure out a certain web function, like searches, recommendations and friend suggestions (Lotan, 2013). Sadly, there is now a machine that is in control of everything on social media that is called algorithm. With all the spread and share of data on our social networks nowadays, it is what attracts the most attention that is considered more important than any ordinary published story (Lotan, n.d). Which proves that algorithms are making the decisions concerning the content that is found on social media.
The Competence and reputation of news is avoided by calculated ratings “algorithm (McDuling, 2015). This is not to say that the most visited websites are the most accurate ones. The most popular social media platforms nowadays are Google, Facebook, and Twitter. To start with Google, it is heavily dominated by the algorithm system. It supervises and observes the users’ action online so it could provide the news and the information needed. Google only provides links to external news stories yet people seem to trust it more than the news sites themselves (McDuling, 2015). When it comes to Facebook, also it has its own algorithmic system. Mainly it is correlated with ads. This system converts descriptions and tags into different categories so they go present them with ads that belong to this category (Angwin; Varner and Tobin, 2017). Furthermore, Twitter mainly focuses on posts that are shared. Social media platforms are very powerful in world full of technological aspects. By Algorithms dominating these platforms it is hard to achieve objectivity.
To sum up, it is important to portray objectivity and truth when it comes to social media. However, it is even more important that social media platforms such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook take the responsibility of what is posted. For this reason, algorithms enfeebled the objectivity and un-biased in news delivery. Which also, blustered the democratic media field that should be maintained. Users should be aware that the social media platforms that they are using are being controlled by algorithmic systems. Journalists and users should be aware of fake news and how they are portrayed. For this reason, fake news plays an important role when it comes to the algorithms that are shaping all the social media platforms. Those systems are based on numbers visiting websites rather than focusing on the main factors such as objectivity and truth. Educating people about this issue is very important. If the algorithmic systems change their policy of shaping these social media platforms to maintain credibility, objectivity and truth, big changes would take place. In this way, algorithms will no longer harm the objectivity and the ethical behaviors that are shaped by the media field.
References
Kovach, Rosenstiel. (n.d). The Elements of Journalism. Retrieved from:
(2013) Networked Audiences, in McBride, K. & Rosenstiel, T. The new Ethics of Journalism , Sage, London
Lotan. (n.d). Networkhttps://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/
Ward (2009) ‘Truth and Objectivity’ in Wilkins & Christians (eds.) Handbook of Mass Media Ethics, Routledge, London; New York
Lotan, ed Audiences. Retrieved from:
John McDuling (2015) ‘Google is now a more trusted source of news than the websites it aggregates’ http://qz.com/329211
Tobin, J.A.(n.d.). facebook enabled advertisers to reach ‘jew haters’. Retrived from https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-enabled-advertisers-to-reach-jew-haters
