Australian news diversity on Facebook: An empirical study using engagement metrics and concentration analysis

Abstract

News diversity has long been a critical issue in Australia, but current research overlooks the significant share of content that is consumed via social media. Facebook represents the largest of the online platforms by which Australians regularly consume news, and as such, it is fertile ground for exploratory research on diversity and concentration. This article demonstrates how a digital methods approach to media diversity research can reveal the scale, scope and structure of Australia's platform news market. Using ownership and engagement data collected from Meta's CrowdTangle API this paper analyses the concentration of user engagement using conventional econometrics methods for concentration analysis – The Herfindahl-Hirshman Index (HHI) and concentration ratios (CR4 and CR8). The results of this study show the platform has afforded new entrants and demonstrated significant market dynamism among its most dominant players. However, the platform tends to favour established and well-resourced newsrooms rather than early adopters. As Meta continues to divest from and deprioritise news on their platforms, this may come at the loss of media diversity and its role in democratic participation.