by Andrew Cochran
Digital journalism takes shape as a distinct field, with 58 academic articles as points on a map.
Editors Bob Franklin and Scott Eldridge II press the point that ‘digital’ can no longer be treated as a prefix in journalism. Nor should it be a proxy for “new.”
They argue the ways and means of digital journalism have matured to have conceptually distinct characteristics, issues, and manners of research, all of which merit the field being treated as a discrete specialty.
Within their view, the study of AI and journalism is a sub-set of digital journalism, mostly noticed as automated journalism. Five of the 58 chapters touch on AI directly:
- Automating Massive-Scale Analysis of News Content, Thomas Lansdall-Welfare, Justin Lewis and Nello Cristianini
- Automated Journalism: A posthuman future for digital news?, Matt Carlson
- Computer-Mediated Creativity and Investigative Journalism, Meredith Broussard
- Computational Journalism and The Emergence of News Platforms, Nicholas Diakopoulos
- Data, Algorithms, and Code: Implications for journalism practice in the digital age, John V. Pavlik
In the most forward-looking of the five, author Matt Carlson suggests a research agenda for automated journalism, expecting it will be productive in three areas:
- Business models, particularly their effect on labour as well as profitability
- Emerging practices within newsrooms
- Acceptance by audiences
“The posthuman future of journalism… suggests a hybrid state in which computer-and human-authored stories intermingle in ways yet to be developed.“
– Matt Carlson
The collection is weighty in volume, thinking, and price. Formal researchers will receive the greatest benefit. Casual readers with a library card may find individual sections valuable. There is a lot to choose from.
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The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies 1st Edition | Taylor and Francis | 2018 | Edited by Bob Franklin and Scott Eldridge II
Note: Searches for this book may show results with similar titles, including another with these editors. Also, the e-book version is considerably less costly.