Google is the new appointed editor and cheif
The internet has become more and more the publics first stop when gathering news but is it shifting the news gatherers top position at the distribution of news. Upon searching anything via google a user is presented by a ‘in the news’ section showing ‘headlines’ on the search term at hand, supposedly from the news.
Google lets a webmaster mark their blog, website or feed as news and then the results are delivered by the most linked to sites, not the most reputable. So has google taken over the role of the editor and should their be more regulations over what can be listed as news to stop junk being delivered as such to the billions of users of the the world wide web?
The obvious pros to googles system is variety, a users ability to gain information from more sources then the leading news websites like that of the BBC and other well known and established media houses. This variety means that as well as going direct to the tried and tested sources readers can gather news from all over the world based on what the world is talking about.
The obvious cons to the system is that the most linked to website is not the same thing as the most accurate website. Lots of people call for more regulation over Google as a search engine because of it. Googles top search results are collated in the most part by the websites linked to the most but they also use algorithms to calculate their search results as do Facebook, Twitter and other new media websites. This means in the current situation editorial decisions are being made by algorithms and an online system.
As the guardians Emily Bell writes, we are letting tech giants like Facebook and twitter control our news values but in reality this is actually controlled by robots, and they are controlling our news values. On a website like Facebook users share the news and whether they show up in other peoples timelines depends on if the right people are talking about them, another news distribution based on what the world is talking about, again.
Robert Thomson , the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, wrote a letter to the EU to dissuade them from letting google get away with a billion dollar fine. In this letter he reprimanded google for not sending users to their website but also criticized them for more elaborate wrongs like a responsibility in the rise of extremists in the EU. He made an argument that producing biased search results will undermine the principles of modern society.
Five years ago Thomson said “The internet should be a canvas for freedom of expression and for high quality content of enduring value. Undermining the basic business model of professional content creators will lead to a less informed, more vexatious level of dialogue in our society.” this is many journalists and the media’s fear. That the Search giants like google are sending people to news websites where journalists do not adhere to the rules of a fair and balanced story, towards casual blogs, citizen journalism and away from well sourced factual stories by professional journalists.
It can be argued that this is incorrect and the variety of information that the google search engine produces is a positive for a more well informed public. That users can read these results and also go to the established media houses websites if they choose to. I for one agree that technology is broadening new horizons offering people a mixture of news sources and other people opinions to help form their own. It may be the case that google could do with stronger policing but massive corporations discontent with not enough hits is not the reason for more stringent regulations.
References
Bell, E. (2014). News Corp shouldn’t blame Google for the media’s woes. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/21/news-corp-google-robert-thomson [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].
Bell, E. (2014). We can’t let tech giants, like Facebook and Twitter, control our news values. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2014/aug/31/tech-giants-facebook-twitter-algorithm-editorial-values [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].
Thomson, R. (2014). Full text of News Corp’s letter to Google. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/18/full-text-news-corps-letter-google-robert-thomson [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].