Automated Journalism

arXiv (Cornell University)

Abstract

Developed as a response to the increasing popularity of data-driven journalism, automated journalism refers to the process of automating the collection, production, and distribution of news content and other data with the assistance of computer programs. Although the algorithmic technologies associated with automated journalism remain in the initial stage of development, early adopters have already praised the usefulness of automated journalism for generating routine news based on clean, structured data. Most noticeably, the Associated Press and The New York Times have been automating news content to cover financial and sports issues for over a decade. Nevertheless, research on automated journalism is also alerting to the dangers of using algorithms for news creation and distribution, including the possible bias behind AI systems or the human bias of those who develop computer programs. The popularization of automated news content also has important implications for the infrastructure of the newsroom, the role performance of journalists and other non-journalistic professionals, and the distribution of news content to a datafied audience.

Authors 2

1. Wang Ngai Yeung Aachen Leiden HumAN Lab

   Leiden University · University of Oxford

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden HumAN Lab , Leiden University , Doelensteeg 16 , Leiden , 2311 VL , the Netherlands

   Oxford Internet Institute , University of Oxford , 1 St Giles' , Oxford , OX1 3JS , United Kingdom

2. Tomás Dodds Aachen

   Leiden University · Harvard University

   Affiliation as printed

   Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society , Harvard University , 1557 Massachusetts Ave , Cambridge , MA 02138 , MA , United States

   Leiden University Centre for Linguistics , Leiden University , Reuvenplaats 3-4 , Leiden , 2311 BE , the Netherlands