Is search media biased?

In an audit of search media results for every candidate running for federal office in the 2018 U.S. election, Stanford scholars found no evidence of political bias for or against either party. In recent months, questions have arisen about big tech's unparalleled influence over what news and information people see online. Potential political bias and censorship in search engine results are a big part of the conversation. Is the concern well-founded? To evaluate political bias in search results, Stanford researchers focused on evaluating the news sources that appeared on the first page of a Google search result for every candidate running for federal office in the 2018 U.S. election. (Image credit: Getty Images) According to newly published research by Stanford scholars, there appears to be no political favoritism for or against either major political party in the algorithm of a popular search engine. Stanford scholars reviewed the first page of Google search results for every candidate running for federal office in the 2018 U.S. election over a six-month period. After a systematic audit of about 4 million URLs scraped from the search engine, they found that sources from either end of the political spectrum are not being excluded from results.