Google’s Algorithm and Its Effect on Journalism
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/business/media/google-algorithm-original-reporting.html\
Google holds a lot of power in the modern world. It has the power to direct users to sources and choose which sources to give priority to. Many users blindly trust Google and assume Google’s top results are the most reliable. This can lead to unintended consequences, especially in the industry of journalism. Google has the ability to favor certain sources and organizations. Often, news corporations can easily republish headlines originally written by someone else and achieve the same success online. These companies are essentially profiting off a scoop that someone else had to work to obtain.
There was a lot of scrutiny on Google for this, many claiming this was unfair to journalists and not supporting originality. Google responded by changing their algorithm. They claim this change will support “original reporting,” improving the visibility of the original article. This will help give credit where its due and highlight the original story where the news originated.
Tech platforms like Google have a powerful influence on the news industry. As we learned in class, Google has methods for prioritizing certain links and “scoring” sources to provide viewers with the best content. This article explores potential problems Google runs across when deciding how to prioritize links and solutions that Google tried to implement.