While looking at a friend's profile on Facebook today shortly after 10 a.m., I spotted her "Election '08" application which proudly lists her support for the Republican Party in 2008. Immediately below are three of the "latest politics headlines" on Newsvine.com, the Web site that created and manages the Facebook application. Yet the headlines were hardly the "latest" and had nothing to do with the 2008 race or its principals. What's more, all three headlines carried downbeat news:
- Ford Recalling 3.6 Million Vehicles
- Top Marine Sees Gear-Provision Flaws
- Hiring Cools in July; Jobless Rate Up
For contrast I looked at the profiles of some friends who also have the application. Only one Democratic friend of mine has it on his profile, and his bears support for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). In his "Election '08" box were a different set of headlines, all having something to do with Obama, although they too were old, coming from August 2 and 3.
Another friend, a Libertarian, had three ancient headlines (dated from mid-June) and none of which had anything to do with the Libertarian Party nor Ron Paul (R-Tex.), running for the GOP nomination 20 years after toeing the Libertarian Party's line in the 1988 presidential race.
Those headlines:
- Bush to Push Immigration Bill at Capitol
- Prosecutor Wants Libby Imprisoned Now
- GOP Blocks Gonzales No-Confidence Vote
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Comments Policy
Cyber Bias
August 8, 2007 - 10:24 ET by mattmWhat is Facebook? And where do those headlines feed from? - Probably AP...(?)
I've been warning about cyber-bias since I started posting here. Yahoo and Google searches always favor the Left. Search results always favor the Left, even if your query includes nothing but 'negatives' about the Left.
Some brilliant hacker ought to create a fair-and-balanced search engine....
Be still, my beating heart...
August 8, 2007 - 10:33 ET by sarcasmoSomeone on the masthead actually mentions Ron Paul in the context of the massive media bias out there instead of Editor's Picks sniping. I would almost say "my work here is done," but don't get your hopes up 'till the nomination, if then! ;)
And for the record, in '88 he was still consistently pro-life, just like now, no-change despite the loud protests of various pro-choice Libertarians at the time, who rallied around Russell Means & lost in a close one.
A serious question: Did Facebook itself or the libertarian friend include the link to the World's Smallest Political Quiz? If it was Facebook, I'll have to grudgingly-admit I'm positively impressed. More of the media need to notice the quiz. If the libertarian friend put it there, then it's filed in the "that's no surprise" mental-category.
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
Any chance at all that
August 8, 2007 - 10:33 ET by balboaAny chance at all that those were simply the headlines at that moment?
Perhaps those were the most positive Republican headlines at the time?
Did you take a more varied sampling than just once at 10 a.m.?
Perhaps those were the most
August 8, 2007 - 10:46 ET by general companyPerhaps those were the most positive Republican headlines at the time?
Now that is funny.
I'll keep checking back but
August 8, 2007 - 11:14 ET by Ken ShepherdI'll keep checking back but bias or no the updates are slow.
That issue itself is not bias but at NewsBusters we occasionally write about tech stuff that relates to news content, as well as Facebook, YouTube, and other sites and applications that are central to new media and its role in news coverage, news analysis, and political debate.
Er, I almost don't want to
August 8, 2007 - 10:46 ET by AtheistRepublicanEr, I almost don't want to mention it and make you feel stupid, but you have to refresh the headline with a refresh button under it to get updated headlines. I don't know if the result will be less bias, I have mine set to Fred Thompson and the top story is negative but doesn't seem overly so, it says Analysis: Thompson's Road a Bit Bumpy.
So the user with the
August 8, 2007 - 11:24 ET by Ken ShepherdSo the user with the application needs to refresh it? But viewers of the user's profile will only see the stale headlines?
That seems like a glaring design flaw.
Yah.. its odd. I'm not sure
August 8, 2007 - 14:23 ET by AtheistRepublicanYah.. its odd. I'm not sure how facebook works for sure but I can see why it would be like that. Its definetly true though, once I refreshed mine I got all the new stories and its not like I've had my facebook page open for the last 3 months or something.
If that's truly how it
August 8, 2007 - 14:28 ET by sarcasmoIf that's truly how it works, you should probably submit the behavior as a bug report, at least if they seem like nice folks! Some businesses, including us, do have informal reward programs for such reports, so it might benefit you as well as the facebook site (which I'll admit I've never used yet!).
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
Its not a bug, they just
August 8, 2007 - 15:15 ET by AtheistRepublicanIts not a bug, they just don't tell you thats how it works. I could explain exactly why it works like that, heck I could probably make one that works better if I wanted to, but I don't want to and I don't blame them for not wanting to. Besides, the different apps on Facebook aren't made by Facebook, this one is made by newsvine.com.