رسانه های اجتماعی و منافع عمومی: مدیریت سیستم عامل های خبری در قلمرو گیت کیپرهای فردی و الگوریتمی  Social media and the public interest: Governance of news platforms in the realm of individual and algorithmic  gatekeepers

1. Introduction Social media platforms have evolved to become significant means by which news of social, political, and economic significance is produced, disseminated, and consumed (see, e.g., Copeland, 2011; Rubel, 2012; Weeks & Holbert, 2013). News outlets have established a powerful presence within social media platforms, utilizing these platforms to enhance the distribution of their content through the online media ecosystem. Recent research has found, for instance, that every U.S. newspaper with a daily circulation of more than 100,000 readers utilized social media platforms to distribute their content online (Ju, Jeong, & Chyi, 2014); and that over 95% of news sites allow users to share, like, or recommend content via social media platforms (Stroud, Scacco, & Curry, 2014). These efforts appear to be achieving results. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have emerged as amongst the most important drivers of traffic to news sites, particularly amongst younger Internet users (Mitchell, Rosenstiel, & Christian, 2013; Pew Research Center, 2014), with an upward trajectory clearly in evidence. Recent data from online traffic researcher Parse.ly indicate that Facebook went from accounting for 16% of referrals to online news sites in October of 2013 to accounting for 26% in January of 2014, dramatically cutting into Google’s lead as the top referral source for news sites (McGee, 2014). Such patterns suggest that social media are becoming an increasingly important means via which individuals are made aware of and access news stories. According to the most recent survey by the Pew Journalism Project, 50% of Facebook and Twitter users, and 62% of Reddit users, regularly obtain news through these social media platforms. A recent eight country study by Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that roughly a quarter of the respondents in each of the countries identified social media as a regular source of news (Nielsen & SchrÖder, in press). While these numbers still pale alongside those found for news sources such as television, newspapers, and web sites (see Nielsen & SchrÖder, in press),given the relative newness of social media platforms in the news ecosystem, these findings are significant, with an upward trajectory over time seeming likely