媒介會不會影響大選

媒介會不會影響大選

社交平臺的“熱門話題”如何排序一直是一個爭議焦點，近日，F(xiàn)acebook同時依靠軟件和人工的做法浮出水面，但同時也引來篩選話題有政治傾向的批評。這一話題的背后，其實是對FB影響力的擔(dān)心，和對“媒介會不會影響大選”這一問題的再次辯論。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

Trending Topics 熱門話題

accusation 控告，指控；譴責(zé)[?kj?'ze??(?)n]

algorithm 算法，運算法則['?lg?r?e(?)m]

barometer 氣壓計；晴雨表[b?'r?m?t?]

terminology 術(shù)語學(xué)；用辭[,t??m?'n?l?d??]

prominence 突出；顯著['pr?m?n?ns]

inquiry 調(diào)查；質(zhì)詢[?n'kwa?r?]

implementation 實現(xiàn)；履行[?mpl?men'te??(?)n]

conservative 保守派，守舊者[k?n's??v?t?v]

閱讀馬上開始，建議您計算一下閱讀整篇文章所用的時間，對照下方的參考值就可以評估出您的英文閱讀水平。

如果您讀完全文用時為： 那么，您的閱讀速度相當(dāng)于 每分鐘閱讀的英文單詞數(shù)

2分27秒 母語為英語者的朗讀速度 140

1分30秒 母語為英語的中學(xué)生的閱讀速度 250

1分47秒 母語為英語的大學(xué)生的閱讀速度 350

0分37秒 母語為英語的速讀高手 1000

Facebook makes changes to its Trending Topics team （375words）

By Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco

-----------------------------------------------------

Facebook has made changes to how its Trending Topics team functions, in response to accusation that it has previously suppressed rightwing news and views that were popular on the platform.

In a letter responding to a Republican senator’s questions about Trending Topics, Facebook wrote that it would stop using a list of top-10 media outlets as a barometer for the importance of a story and would abandon a list of a thousand sources it relied upon to identify news.

After conducting an internal investigation, the social network also pledged to institute “additional controls and oversight” around the team that oversees the algorithm compiling the list of popular stories on the site.

Facebook said it had already updated the “terminology” in its guidelines, so it no longer talks about “injecting” or “boosting” topics, but instead says “topic correction”, for rewriting headlines, and “prominence”, for deciding if a story is national or major. It has provided refresher training for all topic reviewers.

“Our investigation has revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories included in the Trending Topics feature,” wrote Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel in the letter to Republican senator John Thune.

“At the same time, as you would expect with an inquiry of this nature, our investigation could not exclude the possibility of isolated improper actions or unintentional bias in the implementation of our guidelines or policies.”

Facebook has come under pressure to explain how the Trending Topics team works after a report in technology blog Gizmodo claimed that reviewers, meant to be objectively overseeing an algorithm, were actually encouraged to exclude conservative topics from the list.

In the letter, Mr Stretch said that Ted Cruz had been featured in the list more than 160 times, Rand Paul more than 50 times and Mitt Romney more than 40 times. But he did not give comparative figures for people to the left of these politicians.

US conservatives were enraged by the story, with senator Thune writing to demand answers in his position as the chairman of the committee on commerce, science and transportation. Several rightwing commentators also criticised the site. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive, last week invited several prominent conservatives to Facebook to explain how the feature works.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. What did FB do to respond to the questions about Trending Topics?

A. wrote a letter

B. changed team functions

C. hired robots only

D. took a legal action

2. What was FB’s barometer for the importance of a story?

A. opinions of editor

B. media outlets

C. CEO’s decision

D. the number of forwarding

3. Who will receive the letter from Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel?

A. Republican senator John Thune

B. Republican senator Ted Cruz

C. the public

D. existing competitors

4. Who were invited by Zuckerberg to explain how the feature works last week?

A. radicals

B. Jacksonian Democrats

C. conservatives

D. president Obama

[1] 答案 A. wrote a letter

解釋：Facebook寫了信函作為回應(yīng)。

[2] 答案 B. media outlets

解釋：此前Facebook會參考其他媒體機構(gòu)（media outlets）的信息進行工作。

[3] 答案 A. Republican senator John Thune

解釋：Facebook的首席法律顧問科林?斯特雷奇（Colin Stretch）向參議員John Thune寫了信函。

[4] 答案 C. conservatives

解釋：上周Facebook CEO 與保守派會面試圖降低敵意。