IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/106431.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Local news in Google News: a response to Fischer et al. (2020)

Author

Listed:
  • Magnusson, Evan

Abstract

Prior research has shown news aggregators, including Google News, to be beneficial to news outlets. In this article, I analyze why Fischer et al. (2020) produce contradictory results -- essentially claiming that local news outlets are disadvantaged in Google News relative to national ones. I find that the authors’ Gini coefficient measuring inequality in articles returned for local and national outlets to be highly biased by an error in its computation, and correcting this error reduces the value by up to 80% for some topics. I also show that the authors fail to highlight their own results showing the degree to which Google News returns local outlets in local searches, and that they further contradict their own results with numerous statements in the text.

Suggested Citation

  • Magnusson, Evan, 2021. "Local news in Google News: a response to Fischer et al. (2020)," MPRA Paper 106431, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/106431/1/MPRA_paper_106431.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joan Calzada & Ricard Gil, 2020. "What Do News Aggregators Do? Evidence from Google News in Spain and Germany," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 134-167, January.
    2. Sean Fischer & Kokil Jaidka & Yphtach Lelkes, 2020. "Auditing local news presence on Google News," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1236-1244, December.
    3. Lesley Chiou & Catherine Tucker, 2017. "Content aggregation by platforms: The case of the news media," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 782-805, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bertin Martens & Luis Aguiar & Estrella Gomez Herrera & Frank Muller, 2018. "The digital transformation of news media and the rise of disinformation and fake news," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2018-02, Joint Research Centre.
    2. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    3. Tim Meyer & Anna Kerkhof & Carmelo Cennamo & Tobias Kretschmer, 2022. "Competing for Attention on Information Platforms: The Case of News," CESifo Working Paper Series 9832, CESifo.
    4. Joan Calzada & Nestor Duch-Brown & Ricard Gil, 2021. "Do search engines increase concentration in media markets?," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2021/415, University of Barcelona School of Economics.
    5. Bisceglia, Michele, 2023. "The unbundling of journalism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    6. Selin Akca & Anita Rao, 2020. "Value of Aggregators," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(5), pages 893-922, September.
    7. Go, Geoffrey, 2021. "News Media, Digital Platforms and Content Sharing," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 23, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    8. Alexandre de Cornière & Miklos Sarvary, 2023. "Social Media and News: Content Bundling and News Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 162-178, January.
    9. Kokil Jaidka & Sean Fischer & Yphtach Lelkes & Yifei Wang, 2023. "News Nationalization in a Digital Age: An Examination of How Local Protests Are Covered and Curated Online," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 189-207, May.
    10. Luca Sandrini & Robert Somogyi, 2022. "News Media Bargaining Codes," Working Papers 22-06, NET Institute.
    11. Lin Hu & Anqi Li & Ilya Segal, 2019. "The Politics of Personalized News Aggregation," Papers 1910.11405, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    12. Catarina Sismeiro & Ammara Mahmood, 2018. "Competitive vs. Complementary Effects in Online Social Networks and News Consumption: A Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5014-5037, November.
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1ikqf7qv0m8h7q6lmc4ng73ueq is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Andre Boik & Shane Greenstein & Jeffrey Prince, 2016. "The Empirical Economics of Online Attention," Working Papers id:11100, eSocialSciences.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Han, Xintong & Li, Yushen & Wang, Tong, 2023. "Peer recognition, badge policies, and content contribution: An empirical study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 691-707.
    18. Abhishek Nagaraj, 2018. "Does Copyright Affect Reuse? Evidence from Google Books and Wikipedia," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3091-3107, July.
    19. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    20. Julia Cagé & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2020. "The Production of Information in an Online World," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(5), pages 2126-2164.
    21. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Du, Kai & Song, Jinyuan, 2022. "The impact of geotargeting on household information acquisition: Evidence from a Google News redesign," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    23. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/52cps7rdns8iv8fr3f1kqm7iuv is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Schmitt, Julia & Miller, Klaus M. & Skiera, Bernd, 2021. "The Impact of Privacy Laws on Online User Behavior," HEC Research Papers Series 1437, HEC Paris.
    25. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2018. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03393151, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Google News; local news; aggregator;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:106431. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.