Читать книгу Rethinking Digital Native Comunicators Training - Cristina Pulido Rodriguez - Страница 10

The teaching staff set up an innovative pedagogical approach, based on active learning, aiming to make students aware of the role of algorithms in access to information and stimulate their critical thinking. The concept of “filter bubble”, also known as “information cocoons” or “echo chambers”, was widely discussed with the students.

Although several studies conclude that the effects of customization on the diversity of news content we are exposed to are limited or that “the effects is relatively modest” (Flaxman and al., 2016), tempering the fear for filter bubbles, Haim & al. note that “while the empirical evidence for both search engines and news aggregators are similar, evidence from social network sites is still sparse” (2017). In that context, the intent was to allow the students to identify certain effects or mechanisms of the Facebook algorithm on the dissemination of news by implementing a systematic and iterative process of hypothesis testing.

The transnational exercise carried out with journalism student combines an academic introduction to the subject and a field experiment conducted with the students. The originality of it being that it does not recreate the working conditions of journalists but places the students on the reception side through a systematic and structured approach.