Being aware of algorithmic personalization? : Insights from three European Countries

Kurzfassung/Abstract

News recommender systems offer significant benefits for news media organizations by enabling the algorithmic selection and personalization of content based on individual user preferences. However, audience awareness of algorithmic news personalization has attracted little attention in previous research. The study addresses this gap by examining audience awareness of algorithmic news personalization through a cross-country comparison of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom (N = 3,030 respondents) conducted in January 2021. Statistically significant differences in algorithm awareness were found between age groups and other factors such as political interest and gender, in addition to platform-specific variations. The findings underscore the importance of news media organizations’ consideration of the audience’s perspective when implementing news recommender systems.