256TAKE
A S TA N DShould Facebook
Grade the News?
As we have discussed in this chapter, most Americans are
exposed to only a small fraction of the media’s coverage
of American politics. Because people read or watch only
a limited number of stories, it is especially important for
them to judge the reliability of the sources they consult.
Do the stories include the right facts? Are the facts being
presented fairly? Is the coverage shaped by the authors’
conscious or unconscious biases? These are not easy
questions to resolve, especially for the typical American
who is not highly interested in politics and who has other
demands on his or her time.
Facebook, one of the most common channels through
which people get their news, has suggested a solution to this
problem. It proposes to ask a sample of Facebook users two
questions: Do you recognize a particular media source, and
how trustworthy do you rate that source? Facebook would
use the results of the survey to determine which stories are
promoted in News Feeds. Users looking at their News Feeds
would then be able to focus on stories from sources that were
rated as highly trustworthy and would not be exposed to
stories from sources that received low trust scores. Facebook
hopes that by filtering the news stories it promotes in this
way, it can help users become more informed about politics.It’s a great idea. By asking a random sample of users,
Facebook is letting the mass public express its feelings
about which information sources it would like to see. While
some people might be biased in favor of one source or
another, the hope is that these biases will average out
over a large sample, ultimately highlighting more neutral
sources. Presumably, the survey results would also favor
sources that produce simple, easy-to-understand stories.
Conversely, if a panel of experts were consulted to pick
the “best” sources for news, it might choose sources that
generate overly complicated political analyses that the
average Facebook user might ignore entirely or misinter-
pret. Thus, the mass survey is more likely to identify a set of
sources that people will actually use if put in front of them.
Of course, it would be great if seeing a political story on
Facebook prompted a user to investigate further by going
to other sites that offer more details and deeper analysis.
But Facebook’s trustworthiness surveys will increase thechances that people receive accurate information about
politics, even if the amount is relatively small.
It could make things worse. Facebook’s survey strat-
egy assumes that the biggest problem with individuals’
assessments of media sources is that they favor sources that
support their preferred candidates or policy proposals. Its
hope is that these biases will cancel each other out in a large
survey. However, the average American’s media consumption
is shaped by a variety of conscious and unconscious biases.
People tend to trust the sources they regularly consult and
distrust sources they have never heard of or have only seen
a few times. They favor sources that simplify complex stories
and deliver information in easy-to-read graphics. And most
fundamentally, people like sources that reinforce their beliefs
and dislike sources that challenge what they think or force
them to learn new ways of thinking about an issue. Face-
book’s solution may not account for all of these additional
biases. Rating sources by their perceived trustworthiness
might well lead to a situation in which people think they are
better informed, when in fact they are just as uninformed as
they were before Facebook’s efforts.take a stand
- Why do you think Americans are uninformed about
political events? Will Facebook’s trustworthiness ratings
address this problem? - Suppose Facebook chose you to participate in its survey.
Which media sources would you rate as trustworthy?
Which would you rate as untrustworthy? How many
would you have no opinion about? - What do you think motivated Facebook to begin its
media evaluation initiative? Do you think Facebook is
likely to succeed?
Many people have blamed Facebook for facilitating the
circulation of “fake news” from untrustworthy sources.Chapter 7 | The MediaFull_08_APT_64431_ch07_232-261.indd 256 16/11/18 1:40 PM