Making 'The Daily Me': Technology, economics and habit in the mainstream assimilation of personalized news
Abstract
The mechanisms of personalization deployed by news websites are resulting in an increasing number of editorial decisions being taken by computer algorithms—many of which are under the control of external companies—and by end users. Given the long history and continuing presence of personalization, the lack of attention it has received from journalism scholars is surprising. Barbie Zelizer writes that "work has yet to address fully the more contemporary trends towards . . . personalization". This study addresses that gap by:
- developing a taxonomy of news personalization features;
- surveying the adoption of those features at eleven national news websites in the US and UK;
- gathering qualitative data on professional attitudes to and institutional experience of personalization via interviews with senior editors at the sites surveyed; and
- analyzing the data with reference to relevant debates in journalism studies.
The study begins by establishing an operational definition of 'personalization' and defining the relevant categories and subcategories of content. Although personalization is often mentioned in passing as a characteristic of digital networked media, attempts to operationalize have frequently been rudimentary.
The taxonomy developed for this study divides personalization into two forms based on how users' preferences are determined. Explicit personalization uses direct user inputs; implicit personalization infers preferences from data collected, for example, via a registration process or via the use of software that monitors user activity.
In attempting to move beyond questions of definition, this study found that the journalism studies literature provided little in the way of an explicit framework for studying news personalization. However the concept does, as this study's literature review shows, impact on a number of debates within the field, in particular those on: news consumption; content diversity; the institutional and economic context for journalism; and journalists' roles and gate-keeping effects.
Qualitative research interviews were conducted with twelve senior online editors at sites including NYTimes.com, BBC News website, Guardian.co.uk, WSJ.com, Telegraph.co.uk and WashingtonPost.com. This method was complemented by two content analyses of each website—the first in 2007, and the second in 2009—to measure the adoption of personalization features over that time period.
The results show the range of approaches to personalization at the news sites surveyed, and highlight which forms became more, and less, prevalent over the course of the study. It reveals institutional and professional experiences with and attitudes to personalization including coverage of user demand. The discussion focuses on news sites' intentions to develop implicit personalization and examines the commercial benefits of such an approach, as well as the effects of implicit personalization on: content diversity in the mainstream news media; and established models of journalistic gate-keeping and agenda-setting.