Diversity in News Recommendations

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of re-evaluating news diversity in online recommender systems through interdisciplinary research, proposing collaborative efforts and policy recommendations to enhance societal and individual information needs.

Contribution

It advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to studying news diversity in recommender systems and provides strategic recommendations for research, policy, and industry collaboration.

Findings

Need for interdisciplinary research on news diversity

Recommendations for policy and industry collaboration

Proposal for a joint research lab

Abstract

News diversity in the media has for a long time been a foundational and uncontested basis for ensuring that the communicative needs of individuals and society at large are met. Today, people increasingly rely on online content and recommender systems to consume information challenging the traditional concept of news diversity. In addition, the very concept of diversity, which differs between disciplines, will need to be re-evaluated requiring a interdisciplinary investigation, which requires a new level of mutual cooperation between computer scientists, social scientists, and legal scholars. Based on the outcome of a multidisciplinary workshop, we have the following recommendations, directed at researchers, funders, legislators, regulators, and the media industry: 1. Do more research on news recommenders and diversity. 2. Create a safe harbor for academic research with industry data. 3. Optimize the role of public values in news recommenders. 4. Create a meaningful governance framework. 5. Fund a joint lab to spearhead the needed interdisciplinary research, boost practical innovation, develop. reference solutions, and transfer insights into practice.