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18 // NEWS APP CRITIQUE

 San Franciscan app Reddit doubles as both a social media app and a news app. Originally founded in 2005, the app was made by web developers and entrepreneurs Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian, and Aaron Swartz.

(The Reddit logo)
The app essentially acts as streamlined forums dedicated to specific communities called "subreddits." These subreddits are the informational sources that make up Reddit's pages; these pages are categorized as:

  • The "Home Page," where users' subscribed subreddits appear
  • The "Popular Page," where trending posts and subreddits appear
  • The "Answers Page," where users can use the app's AI to search the its database and backlog of posts and information
  • The "Explore Page," where users can browse lists of subreddits
(Screenshots of Reddit's 2025 layout of its Popular and Answers Page)
The app was valued to be an relatively impressive $10B with its arrival on the stock market. Furthermore, its revenue has increased exponentially since its procurement by its parent company, Advance Publications, rising from 2014's $8M to 2024's $1300M. Clearly, the outlet would hardly be described as struggling.

Reddit as a news source has been present enough to warrant specific webpages about the app from reputable sources such as the BBC, WIRED, and CBS News. In fact, the app is listed as a news source rather than a form of social media on the Google Play Store, despite it very much being the latter just as much as the former.

According to the Pew Research Center, approximately a fifth of the U.S. uses Reddit as its preferred news source (of course with some overlap with other apps). The app is most popular with Millennials and Gen Z, which may not be surprising considering the holistic, increased likeliness of social media usage among said crowd compared to older generations. Additionally, Reddit is more likely to lean blue than red, with a better part of its userbase considering themselves as Democrats.

(Statistics of which demographics get their news from which app, including Reddit)

However, the app is often predisposed to echo chambers and misinformation due to its format. As already discussed on this blog, echo chambers occur when a vacuum of thought is created, either arbitrarily or through the algorithm. And such is the case for Reddit.

Speaking from personal experience, the app is very likely to recommend subreddits that align with the phrases/mindsets/etc. of similar subreddits. Because of this, Reddit hardly has the best reputation. Its menagerie of niche (oftentimes obnoxious) communities has caricaturized its users as disagreeable, narrow-minded contrarians. I firmly believe this is a matter of environment; whether or not this stereotype rings true depends entirely on how popular, homogenized, and controversial one's subreddits of choice are.

It would be gullible to suggest that broadening what Reddit's algorithm suggests would be a fix to this issue. After all, that's not how algorithms function; they are specifically designed to create feedback loops withs their users. I believe a change like this can only be made through agency, and that people will not change or learn or grow if they do not want to.

- C. Thomas Bailey

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