Paper by Axel Bruns, Abdul Karim Obeid, Daniel Angus, and James Meese, presented at the International Communication Association conference, Paris, 30 May 2022.

1. ASSESSING THE
PERSONALISATION OF
AUSTRALIAN GOOGLE
NEWS RESULTS
Axel Bruns, Abdul Karim Obeid, Daniel Angus, and James Meese
a.bruns | abdul.obei | daniel.angus @ qut.edu.au /
james.meese@rmit.edu.au

2. CRICOS
No.00213J

3. Search results and personalisation:
• Are search results personalised? If so, how?
• Does this produce ‘filter bubbles’ and information inequality?
• How do search results for emerging topics evolve over time?
Browser plugin:
• Queries Google Search, Google News, Google Video, YouTube
• Drawing on the profiles Google has assembled for participants
• Presents as desktop or mobile browser
• Data donation philosophy, involving the general public
• Building on 2017 AlgorithmWatch study in Germany
• Launched in late July 2021
ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society:
Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Nicolas Suzor, Mark Andrejevic, Kim Weatherall,
James Meese, Damiano Spina, Tim Graham, Daniel Angus, Falk Scholer,
Abdul Obeid + AlgorithmWatch
https://www.admscentre.org.au/searchexperience/
AUSTRALIAN SEARCH EXPERIENCE
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4. admscentre.org.au/
searchexperience

5. FILTER BUBBLES?
YEAH, NAH
5
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6. Mid-scale tests:
○ No personalised filter bubbles in search results for U.S.
politicians
○ 41 of 47 outlets recommended to conservatives and liberals
○ Five dominant news sources: almost too much uniformity
○ See Nechushtai & Lewis (2019)
○ Also for Germany: Haim et al. (2018)
Large-scale tests:
○ No personalised filter bubble in searches for German
parties and politicians
○ Largely identical search results
○ In 5-10% of cases even in the same order
○ See AlgorithmWatch (2019)
For more:
○ Bruns, A. (2019). Are Filter Bubbles Real? Polity.
NEW EVIDENCE ON FILTER BUBBLES IN SEARCH
Nechushtai & Lewis (2019)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ3KHiqGmDE)
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7. AUSTRALIAN
SEARCH EXPERIENCE
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8. Key parameters:
○ Organic Google News results only
○ News ‘publisher’ as reported by Google News
○ Broad range of search terms
Additional limitations:
○ First ten search results only (≈ first page)
○ Q4/2021: 1 Sep. to 31 Dec. 2021
Further processing:
○ Count: search results per publisher
○ But we assume that top-ranked results have
more influence, therefore:
○ Weighted Influence: per publisher, sum of
inverse of search results position, i.e.:
3 × listed in first position = 3 × 10 = WI 30
3 × listed in last position = 3 × 1 = WI 3
○ (i.e. linear weighting – could explore
exponential weighting in future)
FUNDAMENTALS
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10 results
WI:
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

10. MAJOR
SOURCES
10
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11. MOST RECOMMENDED: ALL KEYWORDS COMBINED
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12. MOST
RECOMMENDED:
PER KEYWORD
GROUP
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13. SOURCE
VISIBILITY:
MAJOR
KEYWORD
GROUPS
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14. "Our findings suggest that Google News rankings highlight longstanding
national newspapers and television networks over local and younger news
organizations." (Nechushtai and Lewis 2018: 302)
 Our results so far seem to support this.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS?
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15. SEARCH RESULT
PERSONALISATION
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16. GENDER:
KEYWORD
GROUPS
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17. GENDER:
SELECTED
KEYWORDS
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18. STATE:
KEYWORD
GROUPS
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19. STATE:
SELECTED
KEYWORDS
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20. EDUCATION:
KEYWORD
GROUPS
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21. EDUCATION:
SELECTED
KEYWORDS
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22. AGE:
KEYWORD
GROUPS
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23. AGE:
SELECTED
KEYWORDS
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24. "Our findings indicate that despite the ability of algorithms to provide much
more personalized headlines than human editors, they might actually produce
… highly centralized and unified news diets across diverse sets of users."
(Nechushtai and Lewis 2018: 302)
 Our results appear to confirm this.
SAME AS IT EVER WAS
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25. FUTURE
PLANS
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26. Further analysis:
• Detailed analyses per platform, and cross-platform comparisons.
• Further breakdown by demographic attributes and browser features.
• Extension to non-organic search results.
• Evaluation of search result quality.
Additional outreach:
• Demographic profile of citizen scientist cohort still uneven.
• Need to compensate for participant attrition over time.
• Gradual variation of search terms to address emerging topics.
• Focus especially on major events – e.g. 2022 Australian federal election.
NEXT STEPS
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27. International Communication Association conference 2022, Paris
THANKS
Contact for more information
Prof. Axel Bruns
a.bruns@qut.edu.au — @snurb_dot_info
www.admscentre.org.au