Journalism facing the Internet oligopoly: Google, Facebook and news infomediation

Nikos Smyrnaios, University of Toulouse

Capitalism, Culture and Media Conference - University of Leeds School of Media and Communication - September 2015

Research question & method

What do Google and Facebook do to journalism ?

More than 30 interviews with French online journalists and editors as well as within Google France between 2006 and

2013

Study of Google News & Facebook’s Newsfeed algorithms

Longtime observation of of the relationship between French publishers and Google (2003-2015)

The commonplace

Since the advent of Web 2.0 in the mid-2000 the Internet is seen as:

1. A “naturally” democratic, inclusive means of communication

2. Driven by the ideal of “user participation”

3. Offering “desintermediated, direct and equal” access to the public to all publishers

The realityRestructuring of cultural industries in favour of tech giants

Concentrated control of online distribution channels

Complexification of the diffusion of digital content not disintermediation, but algorithmic re-intermediation

I call this process “news infomediation” (Hagel & Rayport, 1997)

It’s not just distribution

Infomediaries operate a mix of aggregation, hierarchization & publishing of 3rd party content + monetization

Thus they have great influence on content visibility => Strong impact on the public sphere

The oligopoly of referral traffic(but also mobile apps distribution & online newsstands)

Content

Databases +

Algorithms

Publishing on platforms

Popular services such as Google of Facebook index news sites’ content either automatically or via sharing

Then they process it through algorithms combining different criteria

This results in 3rd party content organizing and publishing on proprietary platforms that aggregate large audiences

Publishers compete to make their content more visible on these platforms and gain traffic

Crawling or Sharing

Content organizining + personalization

How does this work ?

Public

Coopetition = simultaneous cooperation & competition

Mutual dependency: Google & FB need publishers for the content, publishers need Google & FB for the traffic

At the same time they compete for online advertising revenue and control over content

But the balance of power is largely in favour of infomediaries

Numerous conflicts between Google & media in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany. Lex Google in Spain & Germany failed

In 2013 Google agreed to pay €60M over 3 years to French publishers to avoid copyright law

In the meantime publishers “enslave themselves to Google” & FB

Infomediaries vs. Publishers

Newsworthiness for Google2 traffic sources:

Google for archives Google News for hot newsRanking in Google news

For news sites: productivity, reactivity, popularity, completeness

For news topics: cluster size, novelty, sources

For news items: novelty, originality, click-through rate, mentions in social media, sources etc.

Proliferation of “Keyword:…” style headlines (Google loves them) e.g.

“Shovelware”: re-writing of press agency and PR material in order to maximize production volume

Intensive use of Google Insights for most searched subjects and of Analytics for audience performance

SEO: use of Sitemaps, meta-tags, microdata, internal links, publishing timing, keyword centered landing

pages, re-publishing with changing headlines

Mandatory practices, but on the rise: very important for free, advertising based news sites

Consequences

Facebook’s Newsfeed algorithm

Dozens of criteria are used in order to define the degree of visibility of each piece of content shared by Facebook users

The “recipe” changes regularly “to help users see more stories that interest them from friends they interact with the

most”

For instance in June FB announced taking into account time spent on stories

Consequences Incentive to publish on FB posts that maximize interactions

=> emotionally charged or controversial content

Obligation to use images and video

Intensive use of Facebook Insights

Targeting socio-demographics upon publishing

Investing in community management

Promote FB pages and sharing, liking

By trying to increase referral traffic publishers promote Facebook and obey to its rules to the point of giving away

content through Instant Articles

What impact on journalism ?

Journalism is increasingly hetero-determinated by the technological, economic and ideological framework imposed

upon it by the Internet oligopoly on several levels:

- On journalistic practices (writing style, topic agenda etc.)

- On the choice of business models (free access Vs. paywalls)

- On the acquisition of technical skills (SEO, CM)

- On internal hierarchies (young technophiles Vs. old luddites)

- On agenda setting (who decides what’s important ?)

Political IssuesThe Internet oligopoly incarnates post-fordist informational

capitalism. Therefore it fosters ideology

« Californian Ideolology », technological solutionism, radical transparency, US foreign policy/ mass surveillance,

Neoliberalism/Libertarianism

The Internet oligopoly has great impact on media, cultural industries and, par extension, on how we perceive the world

Thus it’s critique & regulation are major political stakes