Transparency is now an important element required to gain trust. A news being shared with complete background details will be considered more authentic as compared to the one shared without any such background data.
The search giant, Google understands the importance of transparency and recently a blog was posted on Google Search Central highlighting the steps taken by the search engine to decide which news should make its appearance on Google News as well as on other feeds. This is done on the basis of the background information that comes along with the news. This background information includes the exact date, time, source, name of the author as well as some background information of the author which includes the firm they work for and their network.
Proper evaluation of a news to be shared is now a part of the Google News policies. The aim of this policy is to ensure that only the news coming from a trusted source should go up on the platform. Another reason for sharing this news policy is that Google believes that sharing background data would help their readers themselves in self assessment for the credibility of a news sharing website.
While sharing the principles on whose basis the assessment is done, the blog revealed that the company is familiar with the diversity present in different regions while sharing any news. There are some cases where sharing too much background information, or even the name of the source could be dangerous, in such cases rules for transparency may differ from region to region. They also ensure that sharing an article without the name of the source doesn’t lead the news to lose its validity. They also makes sure that these rules are also followed by other online news publishing platforms.
They further explained that evaluation is done on two levels, an individual article level and at a site level. For an article level, two types of information are more important namely the story being shared and secondly the bio page of the author. The link to the author’s bio is provided by the author themselves along with date and labels.
Similarly on a site level, two types of information are required for transparency evaluation. This includes the aim behind the article as well as the kind of information being shared on the site. This will give the user an overview for the type of news they will be dealing with. For site level , the side information required by Google is the policies for editorial of that particular website, information regarding their employees, this includes both, those who are responsible for writing as well as those who are linked with business. Contact information for confirmation as well as the data of their owner and sponsors if any.
According to the blog post, this information was important to not only be shared with the readers only, but also with those who are looking forward to get their news approved. They concluded the blog by emphasizing that the company wishes to stay dedicated with their policies and it keeps helping their readers to stay updated with authentic news only while acknowledging the trusted sources behind the articles.
Read next: People desires to keep their work life and personal life separate on their smartphones
The search giant, Google understands the importance of transparency and recently a blog was posted on Google Search Central highlighting the steps taken by the search engine to decide which news should make its appearance on Google News as well as on other feeds. This is done on the basis of the background information that comes along with the news. This background information includes the exact date, time, source, name of the author as well as some background information of the author which includes the firm they work for and their network.
Proper evaluation of a news to be shared is now a part of the Google News policies. The aim of this policy is to ensure that only the news coming from a trusted source should go up on the platform. Another reason for sharing this news policy is that Google believes that sharing background data would help their readers themselves in self assessment for the credibility of a news sharing website.
While sharing the principles on whose basis the assessment is done, the blog revealed that the company is familiar with the diversity present in different regions while sharing any news. There are some cases where sharing too much background information, or even the name of the source could be dangerous, in such cases rules for transparency may differ from region to region. They also ensure that sharing an article without the name of the source doesn’t lead the news to lose its validity. They also makes sure that these rules are also followed by other online news publishing platforms.
They further explained that evaluation is done on two levels, an individual article level and at a site level. For an article level, two types of information are more important namely the story being shared and secondly the bio page of the author. The link to the author’s bio is provided by the author themselves along with date and labels.
Similarly on a site level, two types of information are required for transparency evaluation. This includes the aim behind the article as well as the kind of information being shared on the site. This will give the user an overview for the type of news they will be dealing with. For site level , the side information required by Google is the policies for editorial of that particular website, information regarding their employees, this includes both, those who are responsible for writing as well as those who are linked with business. Contact information for confirmation as well as the data of their owner and sponsors if any.
According to the blog post, this information was important to not only be shared with the readers only, but also with those who are looking forward to get their news approved. They concluded the blog by emphasizing that the company wishes to stay dedicated with their policies and it keeps helping their readers to stay updated with authentic news only while acknowledging the trusted sources behind the articles.
Read next: People desires to keep their work life and personal life separate on their smartphones
