Evaluation of the Social Impacts of Toutiao Mobile Application Algorithmic Operations

Topic Characteristics

My thesis will focus on the social effects of Toutiao mobile application algorithmic operations. The artificial intelligence is credited for the success of Toutiao as a Chinese news application. The social impact of the application on the audience has been undisputable since its launch. However, the application has received criticism because of having fake news that confuses the users. Hence, many scholars argue that the artificial intelligence technology has created 'information cocoon.'I will attempt to illustrate if this has to be the case; I will also try to verify my models empirically. I examine into social impacts of algorithmic operations in a vast quantitative literature survey. I am going to utilize data from the database of the Toutiao Company which owns the application to obtain 10 thousand pieces of news. I will discuss the three social impacts of algorithmic operations in the context of Toutiao application. The challenge of 'information cocoon' that the app faces will be discussed.

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Hypotheses

Toutiao mobile application algorithmic operations are positively related to liberating the labor force.

Toutiao mobile application algorithmic operations are positively related to creating and guiding the public opinion.

Toutiao mobile application algorithmic operations are positively related to reducing false news.

Methodology

Concerning the Social Impact of Algorithmic operations in the preliminary part of the thesis, I am going to use the quantitative literature review. The latter thoroughly integrates the results of various works that study similar phenomena and use similar metrics. I will utilize particularly the usual regression method but deviate from the standard approach, and I will use strong, pseudo-panel, and probability moderate regression as well. Examining the combined significance, I will depend on the standard vote-counting method and a more sophisticated methodology. In the process of content analysis, we will create eight variables to test the above hypothesis. The data will be analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Other than this basic descriptive analyses, it primarily focuses on linear regression and moderation analyses.

Concerning the theoretical models of social influence, my methodology will be mostly microscopic; I am going to utilize microscopic models particularly The IC and LT models. When trying to verify/falsify my macroscopic and microscopic models, I will depend mainly on statistical methods particularly moderate regression and surveys.

Outline

Introduction

Background and the purpose of my research

An Analysis of Toutiao mobile application algorithmic operations

Content Analysis and Surveys

Moderation Regression Analysis

Social Impact of Algorithmic operations

liberate the labor force

create and guide the public opinion

Reduce false news

Which is the weak or Strong Social Impact of Algorithmic operations?

Data description

Regression Model

Results and Discussion

Limitations

Conclusions

References / Bibliography

References / Bibliography

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Economist. (2017, November 18). Toutiao, a Chinese news app that's making headlines. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/business/2017/11/18/toutiao-a-chinese-news-app-thats-making-headlines

Gossart, C. (2014). Can digital technologies threaten democracy by creating information cocoons?. In Transforming Politics and Policy in the Digital Age (pp. 145-154). IGI Global.

Hersey, F. (2017, December 23). China's most popular apps are also helping find the country's missing people TechNode. Retrieved from https://technode.com/2017/12/26/chinas-popular-apps-also-help-find-missing-people/

Horwitz, J. (2018, January 26). The clickbait kings of China and the US are joining forces. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1189950/toutiao-and-buzzfeed-the-clickbait-kings-of-china-and-the-us-are-joining-forces/

Jia, K., Kenney, M., Mattila, J., & Seppala, T. (2018). The Application of Artificial Intelligence at Chinese Digital Platform Giants: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent.

Jing, J. (2018, January 4). News app Toutiao seeks 2,000 content reviewers, Party members preferred. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/2126719/chinas-most-popular-news-app-toutiao-hiring-2000-content-reviewers

Knight, W. (2017, January 26). This Chinese media giant is using machine learning to go after Facebook's lunch. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603351/the-insanely-popular-chinese-news-app-that-youve-never-heard-of/

Liao, R. (2018, January 16). Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. Retrieved from https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-problem-popular-news-app-toutiao

Marketing To China. (2018, February 22). A Guide to Toutiao: The New Mega App & Buzz Feed of China? - Marketing China. Retrieved from https://www.marketingtochina.com/guide-toutiao/

Rainie, H., Anderson, J. Q., & Albright, J. (2017). The future of free speech, trolls, anonymity and fake news online. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Shen, T. (2018, January 12). Toutiao reveals the logic behind its algorithms, shows they are serious about filtering "unsavory" content TechNode. Retrieved from https://technode.com/2018/01/12/toutiao-algorithm/

Vu, P. M., Nguyen, T. T., Pham, H. V., & Nguyen, T. T. (2015, November). Mining user opinions in mobile app reviews: A keyword-based approach (t). In 2015 30th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) (pp. 749-759). IEEE.

Zhao, R., & Zhao, L. (2016). A Study on the Communication Mechanism for Publishing and Producing News on Mobile Devices. Brazilian Journalism Research, 12(1), 140-149.

Zhong, R. (2018, January 2). A Saucy App Knows China's Taste in News. The Censors Are Worried. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/business/china-toutiao-censorship.html