Agenda setting power of traditional and personalized news media

What is it about?

Many people fear that personalized news streams users encounter on social media cause a fragmentation of the audience and highly individualized news agendas. This study debunks that fear by providing empirical evidence that using personalized news on social media does not lead to smaller common core of issues. We do find, however, that users of personalized news have more interest in topics at the fringe of the common core of issues.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about algorithmic news dissemination. While, currently, much attention is reserved for the role of platforms as information gatekeepers in relationship to the news media, maybe their ability to enable or hinder the audience in discovering and distributing news content is part of what really characterizes their influence on the market place of ideas.