Personalized content is hot today and we like it. I can illustrate this using a example from my own experience. My washing machine broke down the other day. Naturally, I went online and googled: “buy washing machine”. I clicked through some websites to see what was available on the market. After my internet search advertisements of washing machine retailers started popping up on every website I visited. This has become the norm and it made my life easier as I could make a well-informed decision. “Thanks for growing investment in customer data, predictive analytics, and marketing cloud solutions – the majority of organizations report that today they are personalizing content in social media and owned web, email, and e-commerce channels.” (Diorio, 2016). So personalization is everywhere, however, is personalization always a good thing?
In the washing machine example the benefits of personalized content are clear. The advertiser does saves money by showing targeted ads. I get to see relevant ads which help me make an informed decision. The website owners get some money for showing the advertiser’s advertisement. Nice.
However, personalizing information is everywhere, also in the news industry. And this is where personalization becomes questionable. Is it a good idea to enable news viewers to personalize what they want to see? According to Donsbach & Traugott (2008) personalizing news content can lead to tunnel vision. The topics of the news they view are adjusted to what they want to see, instead of what needs to be seen. As a result of this people’s reference point change will start to shift. The news people don’t see is called the ‘information blind spot’. This gives way to polarization and demonization of others’ opinion. This is applicable to any information good around, the impact however, depends on what information good is considered. It doesn’t matter that you only listen to your favorite songs on Spotify. It doesn’t matter that you only follow your friends on Instagram. It doesn’t matter that you only follow certain politicians on Twitter, or does it? Do you think we all end up in our own personalized bubble? Is personalization in the news industry a bad thing (c.q. will it lead to polarization)?
References:
Diorio, S. (2016) – http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2016/02/11/how-marketers-are-driving-growth-through-personalized-content/#197c93e928cc
Donsbach, W. & Traugott, M. (2008) – The SAGE Handbook of Public Opinion Research
Dear David, thank you for your blog! While I think we are all aware of these personalized advertisements, I do not think it is a good idea to create personalized news content, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. If you only get to see news you want to see, you are likely to become less critical and more your biases might even get larger. Thus, I do think personalization in the news industry, when it comes to critical topics, is a bad thing, because otherwise we might indeed end up in our own personal bubble.