Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media

Nicholas Diakopoulos

Published by Harvard University Press 2019

Automating the News

How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media

Nicholas Diakopoulos

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674239302

Overview
Contents

About this book

From hidden connections in big data to bots spreading fake news, journalism is increasingly computer-generated. Nicholas Diakopoulos explains the present and future of a world in which algorithms have changed how the news is created, disseminated, and received, and he shows why journalists—and their values—are at little risk of being replaced.

Reviews

Moves us forward and spells out with absolute clarity just why algorithms are rewriting the media, and where the wins and the potential losses are.
-- Sharon Wheeler Times Higher Education

It deserves praise for shedding light on such an important subject…At a time of general anxiety about the future of media, Diakopoulos’ can-do attitude is a refreshing antidote.
-- Andrew Lynch Business Post

Diakopoulos provides deep discussion of the theory and practice of journalism automation, grounded in significant research and interviews with leading practitioners. The result is a trailblazing book full of information that has not appeared anywhere else.
-- Jonathan Stray, Columbia Journalism School

Algorithms are changing the ways stories are discovered, told, and distributed—for good and for ill. Automating the News expertly explains how the combination of computation and journalism is evolving, with insights of great interest to reporters, researchers, and readers.
-- James T. Hamilton, Stanford University

This book provides a comprehensive, evidence-based, and cautiously optimistic analysis of how automation is changing journalism—and how journalism in turn needs to change to make better use of automation. Diakopoulos documents how technology is increasingly supplementing—not replacing—human work in newsrooms, discusses the potential and very real limitation of new tools, and identifies ways in which reporting can evolve to better hold algorithms and those behind them accountable. An important and actionable analysis.
-- Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Reuters Institute, University of Oxford

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION: THE ERA OF NEWS ALGORITHMS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Hybridization: Combining Algorithms, Automation, and People in Newswork Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Journalistic Data Mining Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
3. Automated Content Production Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
4. Newsbots: Agents of Information Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
5. Digital Paperboys: Algorithms in News Distribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
6. Algorithmic Accountability Reporting Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF ALGORITHMIC NEWS MEDIA Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Pages
- Main content: 304
Keywords: algorithmic accountability; automated content; investigative reporting; newsbot

eBook

Published: June 10, 2019
ISBN: 9780674239302