Man or machine?

By hiring human editors to pick and choose content for its news app, Apple is adopting a very different approach than Facebook, which relies on algorithms to do the same thing (for its Instant Articles and news feed). It all sounds good -- Apple is promising editors will work closely with leading outlets to gather the very best of the news, and to give enterprise journalism the visibility it deserves. And there’s no doubt a human might be able to recognise groundbreaking journalism in a way software can’t. But given Apple’s control freak tendencies, it also raises the question of what kind of remit and freedoms these editors will be given -- especially when it comes to stories about Apple itself, which dominate the global media on a regular basis. This is doubly true if Apple News starts to displace other popular aggregation tools like Flipboard, putting pressure on publishers to ‘play nice’ with Apple and its editors to make sure their content reaches a huge potential audience.

On the other hand, there’s no reason to assume Facebook’s news-bots are inherently any more neutral or less susceptible to manipulation -- presumably it’d be easy enough to flick a switch so they bypass exposes of the company’s latest privacy breaches. And the success of both Apple News and Instant Articles relies on a certain degree of transparency; any ham-fisted attempts to stifle information will simply drive people to other services.

Still, while not dismissing either news ‘service’ out of hand, consumers should keep in mind that this isn’t ‘news’ as we know it, provided by organisations with an express mission to inform the broader public, and that neither Apple or Facebook are bound by the conventions (or financial concerns) that, even in these strange times, govern most media outlets. Some discrimination is in order … along with perhaps a celebration that at least a few journalists will be working at a cash-rich, fast-growing organisation for steady paycheques.