A common accusation against social media, and to a lesser extent search engines, is that they are biased in some way, and don’t provide a fair and robust portrayal of the news.  New research from the University of Hohenheim suggests it’s an accusation that is somewhat unfair.

The researchers analyzed the browsing behavior of around 5,000 German internet users, including of sites such as Facebook and Google.  The analysis revealed that using these kind of intermediaries resulted in many more visits to news websites than is ordinarily the case.  What’s more, the destination sites are also more varied than is otherwise the case.

“Anyone visiting Facebook or Google is much more likely to come into contact with news items. Therefore the use of these intermediaries is an important mechanism in the consumption of news on the Internet,” the researchers say.

Incidental exposure

The researchers suggest this could be down to something they refer to as incidental exposure.  In the past, we would only tend to view the news when we bought a newspaper or tuned into a television news broadcast.  It was a deliberate act.  Now, it’s far easier to stumble across news almost by chance.  Our friends may share things on social media, for example.

“Previous debates have, in many respects, revolved around the fear that online media would lead to new social barriers,” the authors say. “However, our findings show that social media and search engines in fact have great potential to break down existing barriers.”

The research builds upon previous work that has shown that we increasingly stumble upon news by chance, but there remains an element of choice involved.  Indeed, many of us actively visit Facebook or Twitter in order to consume news.

The data showed that the more time people spend online, the more they consumed news, both in terms of breadth and depth.  This was true regardless of whether they were specifically browsing for news-related content or not.

“Regardless of whether a user usually consumed a little or a lot of online news, on days on which someone spent more time on Facebook, Twitter, or Google than usual, they also came into contact with more news as well as more news from different sources than usual,” the researchers conclude.