THE ALGORITHMIC TRAP OF SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT AND THE MARGINALIZATION OF DEEP DIVE JOURNALISM IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The digital age has advanced the relay of information on digital platforms, although with some attendant implications on journalism practice. The penchant for engagement on social media platforms appears to have marginalized professional news with journalistic perspectives that gives media audiences’ immersive experiences. This has resulted in placing undue pressure on digital journalists to meet up with engagement demands of the social media at the detriment of professionalism. The research was set out to exact how social media algorithms and content affect the journalistic values of news content on social media handles in Nigeria’s digital space. The research took its theoretical standpoint from the spiral of silence theory and the mediatisation theory of the mass media. The study was anchored on the interpretative phenomenological analysis method. The review and discussions of the research revealed that the flow of journalists’ prowess is experiencing less visibility on the social media, in addition to the fact that social media algorithms are heavily anchored on engagements. The discussions also revealed that editorial integrity on social media is blurred, due to the value placed on sensationalism over context on social media algorithms. The discussion further revealed that media audiences who look out for deep dive journalistic experiences are often demoralized when social media narratives trigger their emotions with summarized news stories. The research recommended that the deployment of signature journalism, the integration of multimedia elements and the use of AI technology for the enhancement of visibility for deep dive digital experiences could serve to breach the algorithmic trap.