Recently I read an article from Neiman Lab: Predictions for Journalism 2020 called, "News coverage gets geo-fragmented." Authors, Madelyn Sanfilippo and Yafit Lev-Aretz claim that that recent use of personalization and geo-targeting by the media will negatively affect the upcoming 2020 election.
According to the authors, news outlets, have been modifying the notifications received by their apps based on consumer location even making alterations between different cities in the same state. They create variation in the time they are sent out to what specific notifications say making sure to include or disregard certain information. Since notifications are often "all that the user sees," how a story is presented can impact the opinions of consumers who choose not to view the story.
This can be extremely harmful especially during elections as candidates who are purposefully snubbed might lose name recognition or among communities and be forgotten, which in turn benefits another's campaign. This can also be said for the tone expressed through notifications which can diminish or strengthen a candidate's reputation. And unfortunately, these tactics will probably persist up until the 2020 election. So what can readers do about it? Read and fact-check; when a notification for a story pops up that seems intriguing or important, read the whole story, check for bias, and compare it to articles from other sources.
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"News coverage gets geo-fragmented"
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