Read All About It

I have been watching, with some interest, the "Today's news and views" feature on LinkedIn for a little over a week now. COVID-19-related stories have dominated the feed off and on, and for a time yesterday, they captured all ten slots on the list.

Without understanding how the algorithm works (or if there is an algorithm at all), it's impossible to determine why these particular stories made the list. Were these things that LinkedIn members had shared, or were they drawn from sources that were trending more broadly. Some of the stories appear to be specifically selected for presentation, so there's also that angle of things, but in the end, it's all opaque.

And so there's no way of knowing if this list is the chicken or the egg, especially with a sample side of a single event. It will be interesting to watch this going forward, and see what other events capture the imagination (of machines or people) in the same way.