Echo Chambers, Google, and PageRanks… Oh my!
Throughout the circulation of news and advertisements as content continues to change based off web browsing habits, echo chambers have come to attention to be harmful to users. An echo chamber includes information on the internet where users see information that supports their beliefs and do not stray far beyond the user’s everyday beliefs. This support and constant circulation of the user’s beliefs can lead to homophily.
BBC’s article “The Myth of the Online Echo Chamber” speaks originally of the problems surrounding echo chambers then proceeds to bring up information that disproves the negativity of echo chambers. There was data collected that users were more likely to look at articles that conflict their original views. This brings up a unique point that conflicts the negativity of echo chambers. Now, the data is showing that users are taking initiative to look beyond what comes up on related pages. Primarily this action of looking at opposing viewpoints had to do with political content. “[The influence of] echo chambers in social media has been highly over-estimated. But that doesn’t mean that political polarisation isn’t being driven by other factors” (Dubois).
We have discussed various companies search mechanisms to increase a network for related content. For example, we talked about how Google’s PageRank system helps determine the placement of a web page on the Google search page. Each webpage is assigned according to multiple factors such as how high the web page’s score is. This ranking system could possibly influence an echo chamber by the way that the information on a search result can be comprised of very similar content. If users are constantly searching “republican news” this search algorithm will keep the user on a series of page links that will only show related things to “republican news.”
October 22, 2018 | category: Uncategorized