mapping a news ecosystem world editors forum v2 dec2010

8/8/2019 Mapping a News Ecosystem World Editors Forum V2 Dec2010

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Connecting Audiences to News:

Understanding Links Among aCommunity of Sites

Research by

Rich Gordon & Syndio Social, LLC.

Miami Herald Online news team

plus special guest


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A key question by the late 90s:

How do you build the online audience? Data showed clearly that what news sites were

doing clearly wasnt enough

Blogs offered some clues

o Individual bloggers generated huge audiences

o News Web sites found that a single link from an A

list blogger could drive enormous traffic

News sites found that half or more of their

traffic arrived from search engines or inboundlinks.

Rich Gordon / Syndio Social 2010

And then

the Facebook phenomenon


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2007: For MMC and NAA,

I began exploring new communities Wrote the Online CommunityCookbook under contract to

the NAA

Took on a part-time

assignment as director of new

communities for MMC

Discovered Linked, by Albert-

Laszlo Barabasi, and thegroundbreaking science of

networks Rich Gordon / Syndio Social 2010

A brief introduction

the science of networks


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The science of networks:

a brief historical overview

Its roots: 18th century mathematics

Understanding of networks has exploded in

the past decade with applications to many

disciplines:

o psychology, sociology, biology, neurology, ecology,

business, marketing, political science and more

o Northwestern researchers: leaders in this field

The first 50 years of network research focusedon interpersonal networks (or social networks)


Social networks:What researchers found

Bob

Cindy

Alice

Joan

Mike

Joe

Phil

Ann

Mary

1 2

3



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What we know

about social networks

1. People cluster together: if I am your friend, and youare Mikes friend, there is a very good chance I amMikes friend, too

2. Interpersonal networks are small worlds ingeneral you can connect any two individualsthrough a small number of hops or handshakes

3. Connectors are the reason that small worlds exist.They are likely to have a much larger group offriends and acquaintances than most people.

4. These connectors are network hubs that connectclusters to one another.o Without connectors, interpersonal networks would have more

than six degrees of separation

Source: Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linked

The second wave of network science:The Web as an information network

Researchers were limited in their ability to

understand networks

o few can be fully mapped and analyzed as data

The World Wide Web, for the first time, created

a content network that can be captured (with a

Web crawler) and mapped

In the late 1990s, researchers began analyzing

the Web network and comparing it to

interpersonal networks



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1. Web sites cluster together: if my site links to yours, and yoursite links to Mikes, there is a very good chance my site linksto Mikes, too

2. The Web is a small world in general you can connect anytwo sites through a small number of hops or handshakes

3. Connectors are the reason that the Web is a small world.These are the Web sites that are most likely to be linked toother sites they are shortcuts across the Web networko 80% of Web links go to 15% of Web pages*

4. These connectors are network hubs that connect network

clusters to one another.o These sites also tend to get a disproportionate share of Web traffic

What researchers learned

about the World Wide Web

* Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linked

The digital consequences:Greater concentration of attention

You might think that the amazing content

choices offered by the Internet would distribute

attention more widely than in traditional media

But surprisingly, online attention is even more

concentrated than traditional media usage

o The most linked-to sites get a disproportionate share

of links and traffic


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62%

39%

32%

20%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Among top 100 Web

sites

Among top 100

magazines

Among top 100

newspapers

Among top 100 radio

stations

Top 10 11-100

In a world of infinite choice,

how can attention be more concentrated?

Source: Matthew Hindman, A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep: Measuring Media Diversity Online and Offline

Proposition: Network theory explains how online audience attention is aggregated

Content links between Web pages guide people torelevant content.

Search engines rely on links to build their algorithmsto deliver relevant search results.

Interpersonal networks (online communities, socialnetworking sites) on the Web:

o guide or alert people to content

o strengthen bonds between people, nurturing commoninterests

o build buzz about content, products, services

Network science helps explain why the rich getricher: why some sites have huge popularity



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How digital content is different:

the network perspective

Content networks (links) are:

o Transparent (they are easily visible to others)

o Persistent (they remain live for an extended

period perhaps forever)

Interpersonal networks now can also be

transparent and persistent

o Bloggers who frequently cite and comment on

one anotheroContent sharing on social networking sites like

Twitter, Facebook, etc. Rich Gordon / Syndio Social 2010

Building digital audience, attentionby applying the science of networks

Think of content andconsumers as network nodes

Links are established:o When consumers pay attention

to, discuss content

o When people refer content toothers

o When people connect withothers through the publication

To gain audience, media (andjournalists) should buildconnections and becomehubs



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In the mass media age (1950-1995?),

newspapers & TV had it pretty easy

Because of technologyconstraints

Cost of presses

Limited broadcast spectrum

... media choice was

limited ...

mass media were the

hubs ...

it was relatively easy to

capture attention, large

audiences, handsome

profits Rich Gordon / Syndio Social 2010

The top 100 news and media Web sites:

a graphical look

Source: Matthew Hindman, matthewhindman.com


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Why attention is more concentrated:

the mathematics of networks

Rank among Web sites

Links in a network:

power law

Many

links

Few

links

1 Rank among people in the world

Height:

Linear

84-

1 6.7 billion110-

Mapping the hyperlinksof Chicagos new news ecosystem


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Research objectives

Discover the network of links connecting

the news websites in Chicagos news ecosystem

Builda virtual representation of this network

Diagnosethe overall health of the network

Revealpatterns and trends in the hyperlinks

Identifykey players

Collecting hyperlink data:

WebCrawlers

WebCrawlers crawl a list

of seed sites and the sites

with which they link

WebCrawlers expose the

community of sites

surrounding the seeds

They follow a set of rules tofind communities of

websites


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Choosing our seed sites:

two primary sources

In total, we crawled a comprehensive list

of 368 seed sites as a starting point for

121 Sites that responded to CCTS New

News Chicago 2010 survey

247 Chicago websites found through FWIX, a

website that compiles news feeds by locationhttp://fwix.com/chicago/browse/sources

Start with a set ofseed sites

S1

S2 S3

Crawl demonstration


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Crawl these sites and record their

outlinks to other sites

S1

S2 S3

Crawl demonstration

Crawl these sites and record their

outlinks to other sites

S1

S2 S3

Crawl demonstration


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Retain only those sites which receive at least 2 links from

the original seeds, to ensure relevance and community

S1

S2 S3

Crawl demonstration

These sites are the new core of important sites, relative

to the initial seed sites

S1

S2 S3

Crawl demonstration


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The new core acts as a second list of seed sites; it is crawled again to identify the

next level of the community. After 3 iterations, the final network is exposed

S1

S3

Crawl demonstration

Each iteration of the crawl produces an even more specific

set of sites -- sites must receive links from sites which in turn

received links from the previous crawl

This final network 277 sites -- is our best approximation of

the core of the Chicago news ecosystem

Remember: This includes sites that we would clearly

categorize as news (chicagotribune.com), but also a variety

of other kinds of sites that are part of the ecosystem.

IssueCrawler findings


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Key statisticsTotal Nodes: 277 Total Links: 24,598Density: 0.1273 Total Site Relationships:

1,232

General network overview

Tosimplifyanalysis,siteswerecodedbyCategoryCategory Description

Legacy Web publications corresponding to a mainstream or traditional

media brand [Ex: ChicagoTribune.com, CBS2Chicago.com]

Legacy-

Affiliated

Web publications/brands owned by a mainstream or traditional

media brand [Ex: Chicagonow.com, Vocalo.org]

Micropublisher Web-only/Web-first publishers focused on a particular topic,

audience or geographic area [Ex: GapersBlock.com]

Organization/

Institution

Organizations, companies, institutions or non-profits that

historically would have needed media intermediaries but now

publish online [Ex: FieldMuseum.org, CityofChicago.org]

National Brand Websites of national scope with local presence [Ex:

CitySearch.com, HuffingtonPost.com, SBNation.com]

Service Websites that provide services to Web publishers [Ex:

WordPress.com, Twitter.com, Quantcast.com]

Site categorizations


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Scope Description

Geo-Publisher Web publications focused on one or more specific

geographic areas within the Chicago region (Ex:

DailyHerald.com, EvanstonNow.com,

AdentroDePilsen.org)

Niche

Publisher

Web publications focusing on a topic or audience

segment (Ex: ChicagoBusiness.com,

TheExpiredMeter.com, BleedCubbieBlue.com,

NewCity.com, Catalyst-Chicago.org)

Mass Media Websites branded with a major mass media outlet (Ex:

ChicagoTribune.com, NBCChicago.com, Newshour.org)

The Legacy, Legacy-affiliated, Micropublisher, andOrganization/Institution categories were further coded by Scope

Site categorizations

A sites degree is the total number of links it has to or from other sites it is

a way of measuring popularity

A

D

B

H

F

G

E

C

Degree centrality: authorities & hubs

Authorities: Sites that many

other sites link to

Hubs: Sites that link to many

other sites


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Organizations/Institutions,

a mix of other sites are top authorities

Top 5 Authorities

Transitchicago.com

Chicagotribune.com

Gapersblock.com

Mcachicago.org

Metrarail.com

Larger circles = more links in

Micropublishers, Organizations/ Institutions

are the hubs

Top 5 Hubs

Gapersblock.com

Badatsports.com

Saic.edu

Uchicago.edu

Macfound.org

Larger circles = more links out


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Gapersblock.com, Windycitizen.com,

Organizations/Institutions are switchboards

Top 5 Intermediaries

Gapersblock.com

Transitchicago.com

Windycitizen.com

Saic.edu

Chicagoartistsresource.org

Eigenvector centrality:

the key ingredient in search algorithms

Generally, highly linked pages are more important

than pages with few links backlinks provide a kind ofpeer review.1998 Stanford Technical Paper


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A sites centrality is a function of the centralities

of the sites it links to

Sites with a high eigenvector centrality tend to

be considered prestigious

These sites are linked to by the most linked-to

sites in the network

Eigenvector centrality

is a measure of prestige

A

B

D

C

E

F

Organization/Institutions

tend to be the most prestigious

Top 5 Authorities

Transitchicago.com

Metrarail.com

Newcity.com

Rtachicago.com

Nictd.com


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When we set a link volume threshold, we

see clustering by content and affiliation

Music

Sports

NewCityChicago

Micropublisher core

Tribune Co.

A handful of sites bridge otherwise disconnected

regions of the niche-publisher community

NewCityChicago

Periphery

Niche publishers

central cluster

Periphery


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Thank you!!

Rich Gordon

[email protected]

mapping a news ecosystem world editors forum v2 dec2010

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