THE TOW CENTRE FOR DIGITAL JOURNALISM considers the landscape for automated journalism in 2016. Most of the concepts and implications remain pertinent.
REPRESENTATIVE FINDINGS
- Issues of accountability and transparency persist.
- Audience impacts arising from increased volume and more personalization are unknowns.
- Consumers are showing tendencies to rate algorithmic news as more credible while less interesting to read.
- Algorithms in a watchdog role is an area of uncertainty.
NOTABLE ELEMENTS
- How algorithms generate news
- Three case studies (crime reporting, earthquake alerts, company earnings reports)
- Key questions and implications for journalists, consumers, news organizations, society
AUTHOR
- Andreas Graefe, research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and at the Department of Communication Science and Media Research at LMU Munich, Germany.
Guide to automated journalism
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW | January 2016