• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, September 23, 2011

There was some audible gnashing of teeth on Wednesday this week when Facebook apparently altered the algorithms in its newsfeeds so that its users (members? prisoners?) now technically see more of what "interests" them and less of, well, anything else. The generally downbeat mood centered around "Who are they to tell me what to read?" and "They seem to change things every month and I can't keep up."

 

If your business relies on the predictability of things like Google and Facebook algorithms, I can see how any changes would be frustrating -- especially since they are often done without explanation. Or as Eric Schmidt told Congress on the same day: "There's a limit to how much transparency we can have. If we're completely transparent [we] will be heavily gamed by sites that... manipulate the index to produce a false answer."

Didn't say "different" answer. He said "false" answer. Somebody has been to PR school.

There is certainly a dark side of personalization on the Web if you overly rely on Google or Facebook to tell you what to read. Take a look at this video and see if it doesn't scare the shit out of you. Especially the two side-by-side searches on Egypt.

One of the things you learn by reading three dead-tree newspapers a day -- and watching at least two network news broadcasts -- is that even when all five reporters are in the same room, they will relay what happened there differently. Sometimes inaccurately enough -- so that if you relied only on that one outlet for your news, you wouldn't have a clue what really went on. Hello, Fox News.

And one of the things you learn when you read a ton of history is that there is so much manipulation of the news by everyone -- from well-intended governments to outright propagandists -- that what you thought you knew about why and how something happened was just wrong. Especially if you don't continue to read, history as research uncovers new information that throws a whole new light on events in the past.

So what's the point here? That it doesn't matter where you get your "news," since it is never totally objective and is subject to revision as time passes? No -- the point is that you can't become complacent about all of this. The Internet has opened a fire hose of information about everything that happens, from original video captured by some security camera to "eyewitnesses" who may or may not have an agenda that is more important to them to express rather than the simple facts of what they saw. Add on bloggers and tweeters and news "analysts" and folks who like to just screw with your head -- and you aren't sure who did what to whom.

But you can rely somewhat on triangulation, a concept that reporters used to use to know when to stop fact-finding: When they heard the same things from three different and unrelated sources, they were pretty confident that they were close to the truth. With rare exceptions, the practice has sadly died in the rush to get it first rather than get it right.

But it is worth a try. Don't rely on any single source of news, especially if it is first filtered by personalization algorithms. Subscribe to dead-tree publications that have a reputation of at least trying to get the story right. Online, read the same story elsewhere and see if that take is different from the first newspaper's or magazine's. Jump into your tweet deck to see who else is writing on the subject and sample their coverage. Read the comments sections. Sometimes informed readers have better information and/or perspectives than reporters do. Read follow-up stories or books that provide new information. Think. Ask questions. Listen at dinner parties instead of talking. If someone throws out a fact or figure you think is bullshit, ask them the source. Most of the time it IS bullshit. Or urban myth -- if those are not one and the same.

Put developing stories in historical perspective. How did something like this unfold before? It can help to think about what is behind breaking events. Most of all, don't be passive. It is a privilege to have so much information at our fingertips. Consume it wisely.