Prisoner’s Dilemma in Digital Platforms
Nowadays, many people search for news on digital/social media platforms instead of directly retrieving information from journalism sources. The article linked below contends there is a caveat to this — the society’s collective reliance on tech giants like Google and Facebook could lead to lower quality of journalism in the long term.
Digital platforms make it more convenient for users to access news by seamlessly integrating this service, rendering it unnecessary to take the extra step to go to a news provider. However, when each individual chooses to get information through these platforms, they value the convenience they can benefit from, but overlook the long-term impact on news quality. It is true that we derive value individually this way, but the quality of the news information will be contingent upon how much of that value eventually gets to the journalists who create the content.
This scenario demonstrates a real-world application of prisoners’ dilemma. If little value goes to journalists, then they will not be incentivized to produce high-quality news content, making both the consumers and creators of news worse off. Otherwise, if the platforms pass a lot of the value to news providers, it will be a win-win situation in which both the consumers and creators benefit from high-quality information and ease of access. It may be the case that companies such as Google and Facebook pass remarkable value to content providers, but it is difficult to determine how much. Altervatively, it could also be argued that very little value goes to content providers due to the tech giants’ strong bargaining positions.
The solution to this prisoner’s dilemma in news consumption requires the society as a whole to cooperatively retrieve information in a way that motivates journalists to produce good content. For example, everyone could all consume news from providers directly or from the digital platforms that deliver the most value to news providers.
Source: Getting news from Facebook and Google is convenient — but it comes at a great collective cost