| With the continuous development of mobile internet and the prevalence of touch-screen smart phone,users' media accessing habits has been going mobile,and mobile news apps have become many users main channel to access news.At the same time,the problem of information overload and product homogeneity of mobile news apps in the age of mobile Internet is also growing.Under this circumstance,mobile news apps featuring personalized information recommendation service,like Today's Headlines,stand out from the fierce competition and has accumulated large number of loyal users within a couple of years.They have led the way into an era of personalized information distribution.In order to well understand this new model of information dissemination,this study has chosen Today's Headlines(Jinri Toutiao),a popular and controversial mobile news app featuring personalized recommendation as the research object.Using a combination of a case study,participant observance,semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey,this study has probed into Today's Headlines from both its mother company's side and the users' side,examining its self positioning,content source and recommendation mechanism,funding parties and profit model,users' using behaviors,motivation,and evaluation of the app.This study has come up with the following findings:Firstly,Today's Headlines sees itself as a technology company and shows a clear attitude of eschewing journalism to avoid dealing with journalistic values and responsibilities.At the same time,this self-positioning determines its "user-oriented" mindset,which means the company views the users as customers they try everything to cater and please.Its relentless pursuit to superior user experience has contributed to high user satisfaction.Secondly,Today's Headlines manages to provide quality content through extensive cooperation with various traditional media by means of guiding traffic,buying copyrights,and sharing advertisement revenue proportionately;and increase the quantity of original content by strong support to we media through its own we media platform Toutiaohao.Thirdly,Today's Headlines is building a personal interest model for every user mainly based on his or her using behaviors of the app and then recommends information matching with the his or her interests.Fourthly,the company has attracted venture capitals for its value of becoming the new information entry on the mobile ends and thrived on targeted commercials.The user analysis has revealed that Today's Headlines are mainly used by young people aged between 18 and 30,and office workers are the largest group of users.The most popular information categories are social news,entertainment news,political news and jokes.Female users prefer soft content such as entertainment and fashion,while male users like political and business reports better.The most popular content form is picture,while short video isn't as well accepted as expected.To keep track of news,to get personalized information,to broaden information and knowledge,and to relax and entertain themselves are the top four motives for the users to use Today's Headlines.The users are most satisfied with the speed of news updates,multi-media presenting of information and the entertainment function,while least satisfied with the quality and credibility of the content.The users evaluation of the accuracy of personalized recommendation shows a mixed picture.The longer and more frequent they use the app,the more satisfied with it.In the end,this study has analyzed three major benefits of personalized information recommendation:user oriented information service,the re-evaluation of information values,and its stimulus to flourishing content production by we media.At the same time,it has caused problems and risks,including profit being prioritized over responsibilities,the opaqueness of algorithms,the users' addition to "information junk food" and filter bubble.Based on the discussion,the study has proposed three suggestions.Firstly,"Today's Heaslines" has to take into consideration issues like values and responsibilities.Secondly,"Today's Heaslines" must attach great importance to improving its content credibility.Thirdly,the users should be warned about the problems and risks of personalized information recommendation,and the public should be alert of the scenario that algorithms drive editorial selection totally out of its way. |
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