The Epistemology of the Facebook News Feed as a News Source

Abstract

How may configurations of content which are exposed to users as a result of an ‘algorithmic gut feeling’ on the Facebook News Feed challenge dominating epistemologies of news? The article suggests a genealogical-inspired framework to study news distinguishing between journalistic, user and algorithmic epistemologies. Due to the limited access to data the article applies the framework on a unique dataset from before the Application Programming Interface was closed, containing personal News Feeds of 1,000 Danes mirroring the national Facebook population. The study shows an overwhelming use of clickbait, and both user-produced content and shared links contain primarily entertainment, relational and opinionated news. The study also finds that national legacy news media accounted for a large part of the top lists, but along with international digital only sources that are designed to go viral. The amplification of clickbait across journalistic and non-journalistic sources challenge a distinctive journalistic profile.

Keywords: Facebook News Feed, News Epistemologies, Algorithm, Information Exposure, Big Data, Content Analysis, Social Media, News, Algorithm, Epistemologies