Newspaper Article

BURST THE BUBBLE

Tagg, Caroline, Seargeant, Philip

2016

Overview

Much of this debate has focused on the design of Facebook itself. The site's personalisation algorithm, which is programmed to create a positive user experience, feeds people what they want. This creates what the CEO of viral content site Upworthy, Eli Pariser, calls \"filter bubbles\", which supposedly shield users from views they disagree with. People are increasingly turning to Facebook for their news - 44 per cent of US adults now report getting news from the site - and fake news is not editorially weeded out. This means that misinformation can spread easily and quickly, hampering the chance people have for making informed decisions. Over the last few weeks, there have been frequent calls for Facebook to address this issue. President Obama himself has weighed in on the issue, warning of the perils that rampant misinformation can have for the democratic process. Much of the debate around this, however, has had an element of technological determinism to it, suggesting that users of Facebook are at the mercy of the algorithm. In fact, our research shows that the actions of users themselves are still a very important element in the way that Facebook gets used.

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media
• Subject: Seargeant, Philip / Tagg, Caroline