The Objectivity Of Media
Algorithms are encoded procedures for transforming input data into a desired output, based on specified calculations (Gillespie, The Relevance of Algorithms, p. 1). Therefore, algorithmic media are for example the random posts and news that we get on our feeds based on what we usually look for online. It is based on preferences and not relevance. However, legacy media, such as radio, television and especially news papers, broadcast news objectively based on its relevance to a community not to one’s preferences. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, objectivity is the fact of being based on facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings. Since everyone has access to the internet, people are now capable of formulating news influentially rather than objectively, and by posting them on social media, the algorithm transfer these posts to the other users, getting the news according to one’s opinion. This is why nowadays, the media is being influential rather then objective. Corporate companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and more are using different kinds of algorithms to control the backbone of media and advertising. That being the case, is objectivity achieved with the use of algorithms?
Algorithms are different from one encoder to another, from on company to another, from a country to another. Taking the easiest examples, some countries would ban pornography off of their algorithms. The Arab countries would make sure that their algorithms would not promote homosexuality because it might not be ethical to their religion. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not promote women’s rights. Lebanon would not promote anything related to trash talking the president. Does that affect the objectivity of the media? The careful creation of a fair algorithm certifies it as a reliable socio-technical actor because its results are relevant and credible and making the provider more objective. (Gillespie, The Relevance of Algorithms, p. 14). This declaration of algorithmic objectivity plays an equivalent role to the norm of objectivity in western journalism. (Gillespie, The Relevance of Algorithms, p. 15). One of the major rules a journalist has to follow is respecting the right of society to objective information, the principles for searching and receiving information. The journalist’s job is to convey the information without adding in personal thoughts. The news should be based on facts that are true and can be checked. (“Journalists Ethics Code”). Can we then implement that journalistic and algorithmic objectivities are the same? Definitely not! Journalistic objectivity depends on an institutional promise of due diligence. In contradiction, algorithms lean less on institutional norms, they rely more on a “technologically-inflected promise of mechanical neutrality.” (Gillespie, The Relevance of Algorithms, p. 15)
After saying so, how do social media platforms decide on what is trending? Starting off with Twitter, its trending topics are affected by its design. Users are provided a public, real-time feed of accounts they follow. In addition to that, the velocity and the speed of broadcasting is relevant for making the post “trending”. However, breaking news are organized into geographical regions. In contrast Facebook’s “Trending” page is determined by personal preferences (Needle, 2016). Google’s Trending system tries to choose news that will be most relevant to the viewers and most reflective of the broad content on the platform (“Trending on YouTube — YouTube Help”). Therefore, we can say that events with a worldwide appeal such as entertainment and cultural events have the tendency to dominate the trending news section instead of the actual news. In addition to that, the new trend that is now called “sponsoring” is used as a sort of bots to share a particular post or story and make it appear more popular, affecting ‘trending’ algorithms, which further push political messages into public view (Needle, 2016). Moreover, an important thing to understand is that the internet democratizes publishing; anyone with any news can easily write something in a post and publish it online through any social media platform. But some publishers that broadcast news to mass audiences are called networked actors. They contain the power of publishing whatever they want, whenever they want. For examples, The Russian ad scandal during the US elections, or Keith Urbahn’s statement against the Osama bin Laden tweet. These networked actors such as journalists and media outlets may hold this power to decide what message to amplify and spread (Lotan, 2014).
In conclusion, algorithms are now opening a new world of technology. They are being integrated in most of the domain, especially in softwares such as social media. Networks are hierarchical, and retrain positions hold power over others. This is why we need to discern the consequences of this shift and use data-driven methods to inform our understanding of our audience (Lotan, 2014). However, I don’t think algorithms will ever be 100% objective. For me, it’s like trying to give a robot emotions. But since algorithms are codes, they can be programmable. This is why I think that some “breaking news” can be programmed by the companies to appear in every user’s feed, making the news more accessible regardless to one’s preferences and recent searches. An important thing to also do is setting a sort of rubric that defines a news as breaking. By doing so, we might not achieve a total objective result, but by doing so, we will be reducing some bias decisions.
References:
Needle, S. (2016, July 13). How Does Twitter Decide What Is Trending? Retrieved from https://rethinkmedia.org/blog/how-does-twitter-decide-what-trending
OBJECTIVITY | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/objectivity
Journalists Ethics Code. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ethicnet.uta.fi/belarus/journalists_ethics_code
Gillespie, T. (n.d.). The Relevance of Algorithms.
Lotan, G. (2014). The New Ethics of Journalism (K. McBride & T. Ronsenstiel, Eds.). CQPRESS.
Trending on YouTube — YouTube Help. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7239739?hl=en
