Explanations of news personalisation across countries and media types

Bastian, Mariella; Makhortykh, Mykola; Harambam, Jaron; Drunen, Max van

doi:10.14763/2020.4.1504

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Whereas NZZ already had its personalized news stream in place (see, for instance: Pfitzner 2017; Barmettler 2018), but was continuously adapting it, the interviews at FD took place at a time when in-depth planning of the actual ANR design was in a more initial phase. Consequently, while some simple user-driven personalization solutions were already in place at FD (Bastian et al 2020), its system-driven solution in the form of an ANR was still far from complete.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The introduction of digital technologies has led to drastic changes in the field of journalism. One example of such a change is the deployment of algorithmic news recommenders (ANRs) that affect online news consumption habits (Moeller et al 2020;) by transforming news delivery by offering users personalized news selection (Moeller et al 2018;Bastian et al 2020). Combining AI-driven techniques with data about content (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Safeguarding the Journalistic DNA: Attitudes towards the Role of Professional Values in Algorithmic News Recommender Designs

2021

Self Cite

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In contrast to the extensive debate on the influence of algorithmic news recommenders (ANRs) on individual news diets, the interaction between such systems and journalistic norms and missions remain under-studied. The change in the relationship between journalists and the audience caused by the transition to personalized news delivery has profound consequences for the understanding of what journalism should be. To investigate how media practitioners perceive the impact of ANRs on their professional norms and media organizations' missions, and how these norms and missions can be integrated into ANR design, this article looks at two quality newspapers from the Netherlands and Switzerland. Using an interviewbased approach conducted with practitioners in different departments (e.g. journalists, data scientists, and product managers), it explores how ANRs interact with organization-centred and audience-centred journalistic values. The paper's findings indicate a varying degree of prominence for specific values between individual practitioners in the context of their perception of ANRs. At the same time, the paper also reveals that some organization-centred (e.g. transparency) and most audience-centred (e.g. usability) values are viewed as prerequisites for successful ANR design by practitioners with different professional backgrounds.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Safeguarding the Journalistic DNA: Attitudes towards the Role of Professional Values in Algorithmic News Recommender Designs

2021

Self Cite

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“…Compared to these online platforms, post-Soviet legacy media are slow in their shift towards personalized distribution. While some Russian outlets such as Izvestiia and Rossiiskaia Gazeta started combining user-driven (e.g., subscriptions to specific topics or authors) with system-driven personalization (e.g., automatically targeting their audience with news content; Bastian et al 2020), the adoption of personalization is yet to become a widespread phenomenon, especially on the regional level. A similar situation is found in Ukraine and Belarus, where some outlets (e.g., Segodnia and Tut.by) provide content recommendations based on popularity metrics and content categories.…”

Section: News Personalisation In the West And The Eastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a context is characterized by a high degree of press freedom and limited governmental interventions in the media sphere. Yet, these conditions are not universal as is evident from the increasing adoption of personalized news distribution in countries with partially free or non-free media systems and strong paternalistic tendencies, such as Russia (Bastian et al 2020) or China (Shia 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Filter Bubbles Protect Information Freedom? Discussions of Algorithmic News Recommenders in Eastern Europe

Makhortykh

Wijermars

2021

Digital Journalism

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The increasing use of recommender systems to provide personalized news delivery influences media systems worldwide. Using different data sources to predict what content will be interesting for specific readers, recommender systems can better accommodate individual information needs, but also raise concerns about potential audience fragmentation. However, current assessments of the effects of news personalization are predominantly based on observations from Western democracies. This Western-centric approach raises concerns about these assessments' applicability to other contexts, in particular non-democratic ones, and brings to question the influence of prevalent Western conceptualisations of news personalization (e.g., filter bubbles) on attitudes towards it in non-Western countries. To address this gap, we scrutinize discussions of the promises and threats of news personalization in countries characterized by limited press freedom: Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Using document analysis, we examine how three categories of actors-academics, journalists and IT specialists-discuss news personalization and the ways it can affect the public sphere. Through our analysis we uncover how Western conceptualisations of news personalization interact with discussions about it in non-democratic media systems and scrutinize whether existing concerns about personalization are applicable to non-Western contexts.

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“…However, current literature offers only limited empirical insight into the actual use of algorithmic news recommender systems in journalism. A dominating strand of inquiry into the field has focuses on normative considerations about the potentials and limitations of news recommendation (Helberger, 2015(Helberger, , 2019Helberger et al, 2018), while empirical research has examined the effect of different recommender systems (Möller et al, 2018), explored the user attitudes (Bodó et al, 2019;Monzer et al, 2020) and news media perspectives (Bastian et al, 2020;Bodó, 2019) toward the technologies and mapped their use in journalism at early stages of the emerging practice (Thurman, 2011;Thurman & Schifferes, 2012). This study addresses the above-mentioned gap in the literature by mapping the adaptation of news recommendation within the Scandinavian daily press and gathering qualitative data on the professional attitudes towards these technologies.…”

Section: Lynge Asbjørn Møller Aarhus Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommended for You: Investigating the Use of Algorithmic News Recommendation in the Scandinavian Daily Press

Møller

2021

SPIR

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This paper investigates the Scandinavian daily press’ efforts in and perspectives on algorithmic news recommendation. News recommender systems provide news organisations with new opportunities to offer more relevant and personalised news experiences, but their increasing use has also raised several concerns about whether and how algorithms should undertake important editorial decisions. Current literature offers only limited empirical insight into the actual use of these technologies in journalism, and this paper is the first to map the use of news recommender systems in the Scandinavian media system. Drawing on interviews with all 19 national newspapers within the Scandinavian daily press, the findings reveal that 17 newspapers use news recommender systems and 14 of these use personalisation. Most newspapers expressed positive attitudes toward the technologies, highlighting increased relevance and better opportunities to drive subscriptions. The extent of the use of news recommendation at the specific news media organisations is still limited due to concerns about algorithms interfering with journalistic priorities and a reluctance to jeopardise the brand value of the front page. Some newspapers address these concerns by allowing for editorial control through subjectively estimated journalistic input, revealing that journalistic norms and ideals affect the design and implementation of algorithms in journalism.

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Explanations of news personalisation across countries and media types

Cited by 12 publications

References 85 publications

Safeguarding the Journalistic DNA: Attitudes towards the Role of Professional Values in Algorithmic News Recommender Designs

Safeguarding the Journalistic DNA: Attitudes towards the Role of Professional Values in Algorithmic News Recommender Designs

Can Filter Bubbles Protect Information Freedom? Discussions of Algorithmic News Recommenders in Eastern Europe

Recommended for You: Investigating the Use of Algorithmic News Recommendation in the Scandinavian Daily Press

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