Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Diversity of What? On the Different Conceptualizations of Diversity in Recommender Systems

Sanne Vrijenhoek, Savvina Daniil, Jorden Sandel, Laura Hollink

TL;DR

This study examines how practitioners in three Dutch public service media organizations conceptualize diversity in recommender systems, revealing substantial variation and arguing against a universal standard. Using semi-structured interviews and inductive thematic analysis, the authors map diversity goals, item/human/world aspects, and diversification tactics, framed by a domain-specific formalization of diversity. They find that organizational goals (informing the public, broad reach, inclusivity) shape how diversity is operationalized, with distinct emphasis across news, broadcasting, and libraries. The work contributes a practical taxonomy of diversity dimensions and tactics, accompanied by normative guidance for implementing diversity in domain-specific ways, with implications for public service media and potentially other domains facing similar conceptual ambiguities.

Abstract

Diversity is a commonly known principle in the design of recommender systems, but also ambiguous in its conceptualization. Through semi-structured interviews we explore how practitioners at three different public service media organizations in the Netherlands conceptualize diversity within the scope of their recommender systems. We provide an overview of the goals that they have with diversity in their systems, which aspects are relevant, and how recommendations should be diversified. We show that even within this limited domain, conceptualization of diversity greatly varies, and argue that it is unlikely that a standardized conceptualization will be achieved. Instead, we should focus on effective communication of what diversity in this particular system means, thus allowing for operationalizations of diversity that are capable of expressing the nuances and requirements of that particular domain.

Diversity of What? On the Different Conceptualizations of Diversity in Recommender Systems

TL;DR

This study examines how practitioners in three Dutch public service media organizations conceptualize diversity in recommender systems, revealing substantial variation and arguing against a universal standard. Using semi-structured interviews and inductive thematic analysis, the authors map diversity goals, item/human/world aspects, and diversification tactics, framed by a domain-specific formalization of diversity. They find that organizational goals (informing the public, broad reach, inclusivity) shape how diversity is operationalized, with distinct emphasis across news, broadcasting, and libraries. The work contributes a practical taxonomy of diversity dimensions and tactics, accompanied by normative guidance for implementing diversity in domain-specific ways, with implications for public service media and potentially other domains facing similar conceptual ambiguities.

Abstract

Diversity is a commonly known principle in the design of recommender systems, but also ambiguous in its conceptualization. Through semi-structured interviews we explore how practitioners at three different public service media organizations in the Netherlands conceptualize diversity within the scope of their recommender systems. We provide an overview of the goals that they have with diversity in their systems, which aspects are relevant, and how recommendations should be diversified. We show that even within this limited domain, conceptualization of diversity greatly varies, and argue that it is unlikely that a standardized conceptualization will be achieved. Instead, we should focus on effective communication of what diversity in this particular system means, thus allowing for operationalizations of diversity that are capable of expressing the nuances and requirements of that particular domain.
Paper Structure (27 sections, 1 figure, 1 table)

This paper contains 27 sections, 1 figure, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related work
  3. Method
  4. Candidate Selection
  5. Interview structure
  6. Coding and analysis
  7. Limitations
  8. Results
  9. Goal of recommendation
  10. News
  11. Broadcaster
  12. Library
  13. Aspects of diversity
  14. Item aspects
  15. Human aspects
  16. ...and 12 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Schematic overview of the identified aspects of diversity and how they interact with each other. The 'World' class is unconnected in the graph, but in truth encapsulates and informs everything: from the content that is being produced, to what user wants to read, to what constitutes a 'viewpoint' or a 'minority'.