Algorithms for journalism: The future of news work

Abstract

Software-generated news, sometimes called "robot journalism," has recently given rise to concerns that the automation of news will make journalists redundant. These arguments follow a deterministic line of thinking. Algorithms choose information for users but are also the construct of social process and practice. The aim of this essay is to explore "the algorithmic turn" (Napoli, 2014a)

Periodismo computacional: evolución, casos y herramientas

“…A continuación se recogen las denominaciones utilizadas: -periodismo robot (robot journalism) (Carlson, 2015; Montal; Reich, 2016); -periodismo automático (automated journalism) (Graefe, 2016;Lindén, 2017a); -periodismo algorítmico (algorithm journalism) (Diakopoulos, 2015; Dörr; Hollnbuchner, 2017); -periodismo aumentado (augmented journalism) (Marconi; Siegman, 2017); -periodismo de datos o periodismo basado en los datos (data journalism, data-driven journalism) (Parasie; Dagiral, 2013); -incluso el concepto pionero de periodismo asistido por ordenador (computer-assisted reporting) (Houston, 2014;Meyer, 1999).…”

Journalists as end-users: Quality management principles applied to the design process of news automation

“…It involves thinking in terms of process and sequences, with the development of a form of "computational thinking". For several scholars and professionals engaged in a prospective vision, it would even be a sine qua non for journalists to adapt to technological innovations (Gynnild, 2014;Lindén, 2017). However, due to the cultural work differences between two distinct social worlds, we argue that the "journalistic thinking" must be promoted inside tech companies involved in editorial projects as journalism cannot be reduced to the sum of its tasks.…”

Artificial Intelligence and Automated Journalism: Contemporary Challenges and New Opportunities

“…Loosen (2018) highlight of new four forms of journalism (see Figure 1), which can be considered as transformation process journalism faces today not only at the level of the basic stages of news production and consumption but also affects journalism at its core [12]:  Data journalism: This concept has gradually appeared in newsrooms over the last decade, which refers to the process of extracting useful information from data, writing articles based on the information and embedding visualizations in the articles that help readers to understand the significance of the story [13]. As Lindén (2017) notes, "digital revolution has expanded the supply and availability of data that can be used for computational journalistic processes, along with the expectation of events to a larger extent than before" (p. 24) [14]. However, data journalism represents the convergence of a number of fields which are significant in their own right -from investigative research and statistics to design and programming [15].…”

“…Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the way journalists interact with the world outside the newsroom, as well as easier to manage editorial tasks [14]. On the other hand, AI enables journalists to analyze data from multiple sources, besides conversion of spoken words into texts, texts conversion to audio and video, as well as analysis of the images and its classification.…”