Google search results favoured coverage from international news brands over first-hand reports from local journalists after a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday.
The Manchester Evening News had eight people on the ground in the aftermath of Thursday’s attack and 28 people involved in the coverage in total but struggled to get its work seen by people searching for updates using Google.
As a result, the MEN saw a huge increase in branded searches in which people specified ‘Manchester Evening News’ as part of their search.
Two men were killed and three others injured when Jihad Al-Shamie drove a car into people and then wielded a knife outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on Thursday morning.
CNN, The New York Times and Al Jazeera were among the international news organisations frequently seen in Google’s Top Stories box on Thursday and Friday for search queries related to the incident.
David Higgerson, chief content officer at MEN owner Reach, suggested in response that local people should be able to easily search for updates from journalists on the ground in the aftermath of such a major incident.
Press Gazette understands that this is not the first time the MEN has faced issues with search visibility, although for some major stories such as the death of former boxer Ricky Hatton in September it has ranked highly.
Higgerson said: “We are privileged to play an important role for people in Manchester who, during serious civic emergencies, need to be certain they are getting the most accurate and up to date information, told by people on the ground.
“Google has an opportunity to play a part in this and can make sure that people have instant access to local news when they need it most.
“Unfortunately this isn’t what we saw last week and it isn’t what we saw during other tragic events, for example the Liverpool Women’s Hospital bombing. We need to keep working with the platforms to help readers get essential local news as quickly as possible.
“We do know people were actively seeking out the Manchester Evening News on Thursday, when searches for the Manchester Evening News tripled.”
About 15 minutes after the story broke on Thursday morning, the UK Google Top Stories box for early reports of a stabbing at the synagogue was led by a report shared on the MEN’s Facebook page – meaning an extra click to get to the MEN website. The rest of the box featured other UK titles: The Sun, Sky News, Daily Express and National World.
However, by mid-afternoon on Thursday, a search for “Manchester stabbing” did not feature any local news publications in the Top Stories box: the BBC appeared twice, alongside CNN, Al Jazeera and the Financial Times. A similar group of publishers then regularly appeared in the rest of the page one results.
On Friday at 2pm, with a search for “Manchester synagogue stabbing”, the Top Stories box featured three BBC stories, Al Jazeera and The New York Times. The “For Context” box halfway down page one linked to the BBC, New York Times, Al Jazeera and CNN.
At that time page one of the main Google search results featured: Sky News, BBC, ABC News, AP News, BBC, Wikipedia, Youtube (the Times Now World channel) and CNN.
Page two linked to: BBC, The Telegraph, Sky News, BBC, NBC News, Al Jazeera, Youtube (ABC News), CNN, X (BBC News) and The Guardian. Shortly before this, the MEN did appear on page two with a story about Prince William and Kate’s statement about the attack.
The MEN was the first to reveal the name of the suspect but this, too, resulted in its Facebook page being linked by Google instead of the website. At least once, the MEN’s first appearance in Google’s search results was on page eight.
Responding to queries from Press Gazette on Tuesday morning, a Google spokesperson said: “We have looked into this and found that MEN coverage does appear in Top Stories.”
This referred to a new MEN story published on Monday night featuring an interview with attacker Al-Shamie’s former partner. However the response did not address the provenance of updates in the immediate aftermath of a major event, so Thursday and Friday in this case.
Press Gazette understands, however, that Reach has been able to directly raise its queries with Google.
Why can Google prioritise international news providers above relevant local news websites?
Barry Adams, a specialised SEO consultant for news publishers at Polemic Digital, told Press Gazette: “For critical breaking news events, Google’s Top Stories algorithms have a strong preference for news publishers that have a high degree of authority and trust.
“For those kinds of news events, Google wants to make sure it shows articles from only the most reliable new sources. This sometimes means that local news providers miss out, as they lack the authority signals Google gives preference to.
“Even though Google has a ‘topic authority’ signal that should give space for locally relevant publishers in Top Stories, in practice the most high authority websites tend to dominate search results in these scenarios.”
A 2020 study found that Google News “prioritises national media outlets over local media outlets in search results, even when users are searching for local topics”.
The report’s senior author Yphtach Lelkes, assistant professor at Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “I don’t think Google News intentionally engineered an algorithm to help the New York Times over the South Jersey Times, but that doesn’t mean the algorithm they’ve created is free of negative consequences.”
Google says it sorts massive amounts of information from around the web to provide users with the news results that are most “important, relevant, and useful”.
It has several ranking factors that would be relevant in cases like this. They include:
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Google is now rolling out the ability for users to choose their preferred sources for the Top Stories box, but this is only live in the US and India so far. News publishers like The Atlantic, Wired and The Independent have published messaging advising their audiences on how to do this.
The post Google appears to prioritise global newsbrands over local ones for breaking news events appeared first on Press Gazette.
