"Stumbling Upon" Political News

When I first visited StumbleUpon, I was not looking for anything particularly enlightening. After seeing links posted by my friends on Facebook, I was curious to find out more about this Web site. During my initial search, I found a video of a talented street drummer, pictures of cute animals and an online game. However, there were also some useful pages as well – instructions on how to nap to maximize its benefits, a universal packing list and a performance comparison of web browsers.

The main page of the site includes a list of topics that the user can select if they are interested in “stumbling upon” Web pages pertaining to those subjects. Politics is one of these topics. However, it is more difficult to find this category because it is on a more specialized list (not the main list on the home page). There is also no “news” category. I wondered if one day the site could be frequently used to “stumble upon” political news.

Referral sites, like StumbleUpon, have become increasingly popular. They capitalize on the idea of discovery – users discover Web sites that interest them with the help of these specialized search tools.

According to volume three of "The Big Thaw," a study by progressive media outlets, entrepreneurs looking to the future of journalism have noticed the potential of these sites and the “Semantic Web.” The human-centered approach of these sites makes them attractive to online users who want to search for information that matters to them.

Is the potential of these referral sites untapped? Or are they already providing people with political news?

Digg has political news and political opinion sections. The user has the ability to choose the format of the news – written, videos or images. The site also lets the user customize his or her search. The audience is given more input on the site with the options to comment, share, bury and/or “digg” (give approval of the page). More "diggs" of a page makes it more accessible to the next digg.com visitor.

reddit.com had a large amount of information on their page about politics. The news is organized by what’s hot, new, controversial, top and saved. The source of the news is listed beside the title of each submission. There were several submissions from youtube.com, but there were also articles, editorials and blogs from sites such as The Raw Story, Daily Kos and The New York Times.

Users can also directly post about politics. The title of their submission is preceded by the word “self,” and instead of a site, self.politics is written beside it. One submission was a note from a user’s grandfather defending health care reform. Another was shorter – simply stating, “Ron Paul is a highly ideological libertarian and a creationist.” I found this interesting because it received numerous comments. The statement, although seemingly extremist, acted as a conversation starter for a political discussion.

An application called SkyGrid is accompanying one of the most talked about newcomers on the technological scene, the iPad. SkyGrid gathers information for users on a wide array of topics, which can then be filtered by category or user preference. This application stands out from the other referral sites because it streams straight to the iPad so that users receive breaking news as its posted. Not only does this application collect information from traditional news sites, but it also gathers news from social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter. In addition, it sorts information by reputation (although the criteria for trust is not given) and velocity (the fastest-changing information).

The Huffington Post and Alternet are more filtered referral sites. The political news on The Huffington Post, called Huffpost Politics, is from “reputable” moderated sources of political information. Bloggers featured on the site included the former Secretary of Labor and a digital correspondent of the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. The “Big News” topics of the day are also listed at the top of the page.

Meanwhile, Alternet compiles its own news with news from independent media sources. One of the site’s goals is to instigate action among users. Its tab of investigation news contributes to that effort. The site has some characteristics of traditional media sources – each category has its own editor as well as a weekly newsletter.

Do readers appreciate the extra filtering? Or does it decrease the democratizing effect of independent media?

Although these sites are less open to all of the available online information, I trust the news on these sites more because I know someone is policing the sources.

Despite the options available, StumbleUpon is the most popular among younger users. In fact, it was the only referral site I had heard of prior to taking this class. The site does not compile all the latest news on a single page or under a single tab, but instead it directs users straight to another Web site. This feature has its setbacks – users may not get the news they need. At the same time, users may “stumble upon” a video or article that they otherwise would not view if they simply saw its headline. News sources should capitalize on this feature and increase their presence on this site. After all, as "The Big Thaw" noted, younger Internet users expect the news to find them.

We don’t want to dig for news. We want to stumble upon it.