Czech readers between benefits and threats of the algorithmic news personalization

• Jaromír Jaroslav Volek ^[2] ; Alžběta Krausová ^[3] ; Vaclav Moravec ^[1]
  1. [1] Charles University in Prague

     Charles University in Prague

     Chequia

     
  2. [2] FOCUS –Social Research
  3. [3] Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences

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• Localización: Observatorio (OBS*), ISSN-e 1646-5954, Vol. 17, No 1, 2023, págs. 1-18
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The paper presents a study on how Czech news consumers adapted to the personalization of news. Our study is the first one that tries to deepen the existing knowledge about Czech internet users’ reflections of the algorithmic news contents’ personalization.The goal of the research was to gain insight into consumers' perceptions of news personalization and to identify the needs and competencies they require to protect their personal data. The research is based on three focus groups consistingof 27 participants, two of which were ordinary users from the Czech Republic, and one consisting of experts from the same country. The qualitative analysis reveals that respondents see news personalization as a loss of control over search mechanisms and information delivery. They express doubts about the credibility of personalization and describe the respective algorithms as a "black box." The study outlines defensive tactics used by users to resist personalization algorithms, and the data indicates that readers view the process of algorithmic news personalization as a threat to the management of their personal data.