Understanding the Sorting Algorithm: Emotion Contagion and Comment Ranking on a Politically Polarizing News Article

Article Sidebar

View PDF
Published: Dec 30, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14434/li.v21.37372
Keywords:
Algorithm, ranking, emotion, comment threads, news sites, COVID-19, politics, LIWC
Issue
Section
Articles
Need a more accessible version of this PDF?
Contact us

Main Article Content

Jinzhi Zhou
Susan Herring

Abstract

Online news platforms tend to sort and rank comments in different ways, other than chronologically displaying them. Previous research has found that bias in ranking algorithms can promote political bias and contribute to ideological polarization. We compared chronologically sequenced versus algorithmically ranked comments on a controversial Foxnews.com article using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software and content analysis. Findings reveal that the ranking algorithm promotes comments with a positive emotional tone and discourages negative comments, suggesting that the algorithm is partially neutralizing the ideological bias of the Foxnews.com platform. Ranking was also affected by comment length and upvotes and downvotes.

Article Details

How to Cite
Zhou, J., & Herring, S. (2023). Understanding the Sorting Algorithm: Emotion Contagion and Comment Ranking on a Politically Polarizing News Article. Language@Internet, 21, 31–56. https://doi.org/10.14434/li.v21.37372
Author Biographies

Jinzhi Zhou

Jinzhi Zhou is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington.  Her current research interests include computer-supported collaborative learning and computer-mediated communication. She has expertise in quantitative analysis, conversation analysis, and computer-mediated discourse analysis. 

Susan Herring

Susan C. Herring is Professor of Information Science and Linguistics at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she also directs the Center for Computer-Mediated Communication. She specializes in computer-mediated discourse analysis and multimodal CMC. She is the current Editor-in-Chief of Language@Internet.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Licensing and Reuse: Unless another option is selected below, reuse of the published Work will be governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ). This lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the Work non-commercially; although new works must acknowledge the original Language@Internet publication and be non-commercial, they do not have to be licensed on the same terms.