AllSides study finds left-leaning bias in Google News, other aggregators

[KARAH RUCKER]

IT’S ESTIMATED SOME 280 MILLION USERS RELY ON GOOGLE NEWS. THE AGGREGATOR PULLS FROM OVER 50,000 SOURCES ACROSS THE GLOBE.

BUT A RECENT STUDY IS REVEALING THAT THOSE SOURCES MIGHT BE BIASED.

ALLSIDES MEDIA TRACKED THE STORIES SHARED BY GOOGLE NEWS OVER A TWO-WEEK PERIOD. 

IT FOUND THAT LEFT-LEANING SOURCES MADE UP 63% OF THE CONTENT IN 2023, AND THAT’S ACTUALLY UP FROM 61% THE YEAR BEFORE. 

MEANWHILE, RIGHT-LEANING OUTLETS REPRESENTED JUST 6% IN 2023, AND 3% IN 2022.

THE STUDY ALSO POINTED OUT A SIGNIFICANT IMBALANCE IN POLITICAL COVERAGE, ESPECIALLY NOTICEABLE DURING THE LEAD-UP TO THE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS. DURING THIS TIME, SEARCHING FOR “ELECTION” ON GOOGLE NEWS BROUGHT UP FEWER RESULTS FROM MEDIA OUTLETS THAT ALLSIDES CLASSIFIES AS CENTER, LEAN RIGHT, OR RIGHT.

RIGHT-LEANING OUTLETS RARELY MADE UP MORE THAN 12% OF THE SEARCH RESULTS, WITH SEARCH TERM “BIDEN” BEING THE ONLY EXCEPTION.

ALLSIDES’ ANALYSIS OF 494 HOMEPAGE ARTICLES ON GOOGLE NEWS FOUND THAT 8 OUT OF THE TOP 10 SOURCES PREDOMINANTLY FEATURED A LEAN LEFT OR LEFT BIAS.

ALLSIDES DISCOVERED SIMILAR LEFT-LEANING BIASES IN BING NEWS, APPLE NEWS AND YAHOO NEWS. 

SEPARATELY, AD FONTES, A TOOL THAT ASSESSES MEDIA BIAS AND RELIABILITY, HAS ALSO DETECTED THESE LEANINGS IN APPLE NEWS AND YAHOO NEWS, THOUGH IT DID NOT ANALYZE BING OR GOOGLE NEWS.

NEWS AGGREGATORS AIM TO SERVE AS NEUTRAL PLATFORMS, DRAWING CONTENT FROM A WIDE POLITICAL SPECTRUM. HOWEVER, THE REALITY IS MORE COMPLEX, WITH SEVERAL FACTORS POTENTIALLY INFLUENCING THE CONTENT’S PERCEIVED BIAS.

ALGORITHMS PLAY A KEY ROLE, PERSONALIZING NEWS FEEDS BASED ON A USER’S PAST BEHAVIOR AND PREFERENCES. THIS CUSTOMIZATION CAN ENHANCE USER EXPERIENCE BY MAKING NEWS MORE RELEVANT – BUT IT ALSO RISKS REINFORCING EXISTING BIASES, LEADING TO “FILTER BUBBLES” OR “ECHO CHAMBERS.”

ADDITIONALLY, USER ENGAGEMENT—THROUGH LIKES, SHARES, AND COMMENTS—PLAYS A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN BOOSTING STORIES, MAKING THEM MORE VISIBLE WITHOUT REGARD TO POLITICAL LEANINGS.

JOHN GABLE – THE CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF ALLSIDES – SAYS THERE COULD BE OTHER CONTRIBUTING FACTORS:

JOHN GABLE | CEO, ALLSIDES

“Or perhaps the slanted results merely reflect a profit motive, either intentional or accidental, in which news from one political side leads to more views, clicks, and ad revenue than others.”

[KARAH RUCKER]

GOOGLE HAS PREVIOUSLY SAID THE COMPANY HAS NEVER, AND WILL NEVER, SKEW ITS SEARCH RESULTS FOR POLITICAL REASONS. A REPORT BY THE ECONOMIST IN 2019 SHOWED THAT GOOGLE’S SEARCH ENGINE ASSESSES “EXPERTISE” AND “TRUSTWORTHINESS” BUT NOT IDEOLOGY.