Does the Internet put us in Ideological Ghettos?
An interesting piece in Slate today challenges the notion that news consumers flock to sources that reinforce their ideological perspectives. We’ve put together a few articles that bring us back through the decade to review what’s been said.
Slate references a recent paper by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro called Ideological Segregation Online and Offline (PDF).
We find that ideological segregation of online news consumption is low in absolute terms, higher than the segregation of most offline news consumption, and significantly lower than the segregation of face-to-face interactions with neighbors, co-workers, or family members. We find no evidence that the Internet is becoming more segregated over time.
The New York Times’ David Brooks casts his sunny disposition on the issue. News ghettos aren’t true, he says, picking up on the above study.
Ever the wordsmith, his terminology references cozy information “cocoons” rather than myopic information “ghettos”.
People who spend a lot of time on Glenn Beck’s Web site are more likely to visit The New York Times’s Web site than average Internet users. People who spend time on the most liberal sites are more likely to go to foxnews.com than average Internet users. Even white supremacists and neo-Nazis travel far and wide across the Web.
That last bit leaves me reassured.
Of course, The Atlantic likes to rattle its readers with the impending apocalypse and wonders about the practicalities of “Governing in the Age of Fox News“.
The polarization of the American media has deep historical roots—the republic came into being amidst a vigorous partisan press. But the splintering of public attention and the intensification of ideological journalism—in particular, the rise of Fox News—have created unique challenges for President Obama. Is it possible to have partisan media that retain professional standards of reporting?
Rewind almost six years and the Times too wondered how a fractured news consuming public could ever find common ground.
More News is not Necessarily Good News, they harrumphed back in the day while reporting on a Pew Research Center study.
And this freewheeling bazaar of news choices has generated an audience that is increasingly self-segregating. Consider that a plurality of Fox News Channel’s audience is now Republican, while a plurality of CNN’s audience now consists of Democrats, according to Pew’s latest biennial survey of news habits. That poll also showed that perceptions of “media credibility” – that is, whether people think a particular news outlet can be trusted – are now more driven by ideology and partisanship than at any point in nearly 20 years of surveys.
Take the Wayback machine all the way back to 2001 and we get Cass Susstein, then a University of Chicago Professor and now part of the Obama Administration worrying about the very same thing.
Is the Internet a wonderful development for democracy? In many ways it certainly is…
…But in the midst of the celebration, I want to raise a note of caution. I do so by emphasizing one of the most striking powers provided by emerging technologies: the growing power of consumers to “filter” what they see. As a result of the Internet and other technological developments, many people are increasingly engaged in a process of “personalization” that limits their exposure to topics and points of view of their own choosing. They filter in, and they also filter out, with unprecedented powers of precision. Consider just a few examples
So there you have it. The Internets: where freaky information cocooning happens except when it doesn’t. Good night, and good luck.
About Does the Internet put us in Ideological Ghettos?
This article originally appeared on ScribeMedia.org.
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