Automation, Journalism, and Human–Machine Communication: Rethinking Roles and Relationships of Humans and Machines in News

Lewis, Seth C.; Guzman, Andrea L.; Schmidt, Thomas

doi:10.1080/21670811.2019.1577147

Cited by 172 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Although diverging topics emerged from the data, one topic relevant to journalists themselves was surprisingly absent: robot-journalism (Lewis, Guzman, & Schmidt, 2019). Robot-journalism (a.k.a.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Artificial Intelligence in the Dutch Press: An Analysis of Topics and Trends

Vergeer

2020

Communication Studies

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The present study focuses on newspaper articles published in all newspapers in the Netherlands from 2000 up to 2018 on how they report on artificial intelligence. The study showed how reporting changes over time and how different types of newspapers report differently about various topics in the field of artificial intelligence. The findings show that newspapers increasingly report about AI from 2014 onward. Newspapers do so on a wide range of topics related to AI. Several types of newspapers showed distinct coverage of many artificial intelligence-related topics. Although robots and their football capabilities appear to be ever-present in newspapers, recent articles about tech giants and fake news are more prominent in newspapers. One of the most notable findings was that religious newspapers published less about AI topics, even though some topics on artificial intelligence have religious connotations (cf. singularity, consciousness). Sentiments about AI in newspaper articles remained balanced between positive and negative sentiments over the years.Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a promise to society for a long time. Turing (1950) is the first to mention intelligence in a computing machine, which became known later as AI. The technological advance of AI has been slow but steady. It encountered beautiful summers when the sky was the limit: quick progress in algorithms in times with unlimited funding. However, it was also met by severe winters when the development ground to a halt for extended periods, and funding was cut back (Crevier, 1993). Since the early 2010s, AI has seen a strong revival, due to new perspectives, particularly the use of neural networks algorithms for deep learning, particularly Hidden Markov Models, combined with the availability of Big Data to train these algorithms. At the same time, trained AI models are accessible for software developers, using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), as provided by companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. In the late 2010 s, many people use AI in consumer products, knowingly or unknowingly. Devices such as iPhones, Android phones, Google Home, Amazon's Alexa, computer games, chatbots on websites that often have AI-driven apps. So, does this mean AI is an accepted technology? To make that decision, people can rely on direct experiences by using the technology first-hand, using these applications. Mostly, these applications are for fun and play and have become quite popular. People can also use external information sources to learn what lies ahead in the near and distant future.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Artificial Intelligence in the Dutch Press: An Analysis of Topics and Trends

Vergeer

2020

Communication Studies

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“…So, they recommended to include special courses in the academic arena with resourceful contents and specialized faculties. Lewis et al (2019) talked about human machine communication domain where the typical role of machines has changed, working as a news source rather than news channels. They termed this change as "Ontological Transaction" by focusing on the shift of technology use in traditional journalism practice.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2020

AJMMC

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Mission ATINER is an Athens-based World Association of Academics and Researchers based in Athens. ATINER is an independent and non-profit Association with a Mission to become a forum where Academics and Researchers from all over the world can meet in Athens, exchange ideas on their research and discuss future developments in their disciplines, as well as engage with professionals from other fields. Athens was chosen because of its long history of academic gatherings, which go back thousands of years to Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. Both these historic places are within walking distance from ATINER"s downtown offices. Since antiquity, Athens was an open city. In the words of Pericles, Athens"…is open to the world, we never expel a foreigner from learning or seeing". ("Pericles" Funeral Oration", in Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War). It is ATINER"s mission to revive the glory of Ancient Athens by inviting the World Academic Community to the city, to learn from each other in an environment of freedom and respect for other people"s opinions and beliefs. After all, the free expression of one"s opinion formed the basis for the development of democracy, and Athens was its cradle. As it turned out, the Golden Age of Athens was in fact, the Golden Age of the Western Civilization. Education and (Re)searching for the "truth" are the pillars of any free (democratic) society. This is the reason why Education and Research are the two core words in ATINER"s name.

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“…We began working on this project more than two years ago under the premise that, although the journalism studies literature had made great strides in assessing the digitization of news in the 2000s and the emergence, in the 2010s, of data, code, and software as key organizing components of contemporary journalism (see, e.g., Anderson, 2013;Ausserhofer et al 2017; Lewis and Westlund 2015a; Usher 2016; Weber and Kosterich 2018), there was yet an opportunity to more fully capture and conceptualize the particular influence of algorithms and automation in newswork. By the mid-2010s, it had become clear that fully automated and semi-automated forms of gathering, filtering, composing, and sharing news had assumed a greater place in a growing number of newsrooms (Diakopoulos 2019;D€ orr 2016), opening the possibility that there were places where shifts in the norms, patterns, and routines of news production were happening and even that, at a more fundamental level, taken-forgranted ideas about who (or what) does journalism were being challenged (Lewis, Guzman, and Schmidt 2019;Primo and Zago 2015). Some algorithms, for example, were being used to filter enormous quantities of content published on social media platforms, picking out what was potentially newsworthy and alerting journalists to its existence (Thurman et al 2016;Fletcher et al 2017).…”

Section: Algorithms Automation and Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The issue and its contributions also represent a crucial bridging point, linking a long line of research on journalism and computation with scholarly terrain yet to be explored. This is particularly so as artificial intelligence-and the human-machine communication that it facilitates-becomes a more salient factor in the way people make sense of the world and create meaning, both with each other and in relation to machines (Guzman and Lewis 2019;Lewis et al 2019).…”

Section: Looking Backward and Forward: Extending Research On Computatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, they set the stage for future research on human-machine communication in journalism studies (cf. Lewis et al 2019), setting up a series of questions that deserve to be explored, such as: To what extent does the use of socialbots and other chat technologies alter the conditions for meaning-making around news, for journalists and audiences alike? What does it mean-socially, culturally, normatively, institutionally, and so forth-to organize news and information to suit automated forms of technology that are intended to mimic human communication and behaviour?…”

Section: Looking Backward and Forward: Extending Research On Computatmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Algorithms, Automation, and News

Thurman

Lewis

Kunert³

2019

Digital Journalism

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This special issue examines the growing importance of algorithms and automation in the gathering, composition, and distribution of news. It connects a long line of research on journalism and computation with scholarly and professional terrain yet to be explored. Taken as a whole, these articles share some of the noble ambitions of the pioneering publications on 'reporting algorithms', such as a desire to see computing help journalists in their watchdog role by holding power to account. However, they also go further, firstly by addressing the fuller range of technologies that computational journalism now consists of: from chatbots and recommender systems, to artificial intelligence and atomised journalism. Secondly, they advance the literature by demonstrating the increased variety of uses for these technologies, including engaging underserved audiences, selling subscriptions, and recombining and re-using content. Thirdly, they problematize computational journalism by, for example, pointing out some of the challenges inherent in applying AI to investigative journalism and in trying to preserve public service values. Fourthly, they offer suggestions for future research and practice, including by presenting a framework for developing democratic news recommenders and another that may help us think about computational journalism in a more integrated, structured manner.

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Automation, Journalism, and Human–Machine Communication: Rethinking Roles and Relationships of Humans and Machines in News

Cited by 172 publications

References 65 publications

Artificial Intelligence in the Dutch Press: An Analysis of Topics and Trends

Artificial Intelligence in the Dutch Press: An Analysis of Topics and Trends

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Algorithms, Automation, and News

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