Google’s recent decision to highlight investigative and exclusive journalism in its searches — while burying copycat news stories — was greeted with cautious praise and some cynicism by the Canadian media industry.

“I think it’s great that they’re profiling original news, but it doesn’t deal with the fundamental issue of paying for content,” said John Hinds, CEO of News Media Canada, a lobby group for print and digital publishers. “It’s also not completely altruistic. They are also highlighting original journalism because people want high quality information.”

Hinds said Google is also responding to higher regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech, and this could be a pre-emptive strike to hold off potential repercussions from lawmakers down the road. Platforms such as Google and Facebook have been under the microscope from antitrust regulators and law makers for their role in disinformation, privacy, fake news and decimating local journalism.

“I tend to be unimpressed by these token gestures,” said Daniel Bernhard, executive director of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. “Ultimately, the responsibility lies with government. If we want to defend quality journalism we can’t just wait for Google to help out. In this respect Canada has fallen far behind the rest of the world.”

Bernhard argued that Google still shows different audiences different search results, while its subsidiary YouTube has been criticized for driving some viewers to extreme or fringe sources of information.

“They refuse to submit to any standards of accountability for the quality of information they promote and they lobby hard against platform liability,” says Bernhard.

Richard Gingras, vice-president of news for Google, wrote in a blog post that the platform’s response to maintaining quality news is “constantly evolving.” The platform will use an army of 10,000 global “raters” to evaluate and improve algorithms.

One rating that may favour legacy media, looks at a publisher’s overall reputation for original reporting, including whether they have won Pulitzer Prizes or other awards.

“We hope these updates to elevate original reporting will provide people with a deeper understanding of their changing communities and the conversations going on around them. Giving everyone better access to original journalism,” says Gingras.

Jeffrey Dvorkin, the director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto (Scarborough) campus, says in principle, Google’s move to highlight original reporting is a good thing.

“I sense that Google is trying very hard to move the discussion past regulation and over their diminished reputation, and I wish them well. This is not a bad step,” says Dvorkin. “The platforms certainly need to do a better job of restoring trust.”

However Dvorkin cautions that may mean the rush to publish first becomes even more paramount to publishers, which would entail risk and could lead to poorer quality journalism. The journalism professor pointed to a New York Times story about Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh that had to be corrected this week, causing major blowback.

“The pressure to be first is more intense sometimes than the pressure to be correct. And that could cause problems down the line.”

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