The advent of new technologies has always spurred questions about changes in journalism – its con... more The advent of new technologies has always spurred questions about changes in journalism – its content, its means of production, and its consumption. A quite recent development in the realm of digital journalism is software-generated content, i.e. automatically produced content. Companies such as Automated Insights offer services that, according to themselves “humanizes big data sets by spotting patterns, trends and key insights and describing those findings in plain English that is indistinguishable from that produced by a human writer” (Automated Insights, 2012).
This paper seeks to investigate how readers perceive software-generated content in relation to similar content written by a journalist. The study utilizes an experimental methodology where respondents were subjected to different news articles that were written by a journalist or software-generated. The respondents were then asked to answer questions about how they perceived the article; its overall quality, credibility, objectiveness etc.
The paper presents the results from a first small-scale study and they indicate that the software-generated content is perceived as, for example, descriptive, boring and objective, but not necessarily discernable from content written by journalists. The paper discusses the results of the study and its implication for journalism practice.
This longitudinal study compares the development and implementation of multimedia on Swedish broa... more This longitudinal study compares the development and implementation of multimedia on Swedish broadsheet and tabloid online news sites between 2005 and 2010. It also seeks the reasons behind these developments by interviewing journalists working on the sites. The results show that the initial implementation of multimedia was slow but increased sharply in pace between 2007 and 2008. By 2010, on average, one in four news items had some element of multimedia attached to them. Furthermore, results show that it was the quality papers that were the quickest off the mark rather than tabloids. The antecedents for this advance seem to be a mix of technological capacities, professional norms and economic needs.
It has been suggested that transparency will change the way journalism is being produced as well ... more It has been suggested that transparency will change the way journalism is being produced as well as increase its credibility. However, little research has been conducted to assess the connection between transparency and credibility. This study utilizes an experimental setting with 1320 respondents to measure what impact transparency has on source and message credibility from a user perspective. The results reveal an almost total absence of any transparency effect on either source or message credibility, although some small significant effects could be observed primarily regarding internal hyperlinks, comments and contextual information. Although further research is needed in this area, the study suggests that transparency does not affect the credibility of journalism in the eyes of the contemporary audience and thus has limited appeal as a new norm in journalism.
"Digital media allow for instant tracking of audience behaviour, thus enabling a potential negoti... more "Digital media allow for instant tracking of audience behaviour, thus enabling a potential negotiation between journalists’ traditional authority and professional news values, on the one hand, and the audience’s power in terms of ignoring or paying attention to the journalistic outcome, on the other. The present study investigates whether clicks change news values and have an impact on news routines in tabloid, broadsheet and public service newsrooms.
The findings indicate that audience metrics bring a new dimension to the news evaluation process regardless of publishing tradition, but that the commercial media seem to keep a closer tab on traffic. In general, journalists strive for a “good mix” between customization to achieve audience satisfaction and a desire for editorial independence. "
Hyperlinks are considered vital to both the Web and to digital journalism. This study utilizes a ... more Hyperlinks are considered vital to both the Web and to digital journalism. This study utilizes a longitudinal content analysis of hyperlinking practices in Swedish online news from 2007 to 2013 to see how hyperlinking evolves over time. It also compares if and to what extent publishing tradition shapes journalistic practice. The findings primarily show that the overall impact of hyperlinks remains largely unchanged over time but that internal links, while still being most common, decrease in relative importance while external links increase. The general conclusion is that hyperlinks, so far, are not an important aspect of online journalism practice.
The advent of new technologies has always spurred questions about changes in journalism – its con... more The advent of new technologies has always spurred questions about changes in journalism – its content, its means of production, and its consumption. A quite recent development in the realm of digital journalism is software-generated content, i.e. automatically produced content. Companies such as Automated Insights offer services that, according to themselves “humanizes big data sets by spotting patterns, trends and key insights and describing those findings in plain English that is indistinguishable from that produced by a human writer” (Automated Insights, 2012).
This paper seeks to investigate how readers perceive software-generated content in relation to similar content written by a journalist. The study utilizes an experimental methodology where respondents were subjected to different news articles that were written by a journalist or software-generated. The respondents were then asked to answer questions about how they perceived the article; its overall quality, credibility, objectiveness etc.
The paper presents the results from a first small-scale study and they indicate that the software-generated content is perceived as, for example, descriptive, boring and objective, but not necessarily discernable from content written by journalists. The paper discusses the results of the study and its implication for journalism practice.
This longitudinal study compares the development and implementation of multimedia on Swedish broa... more This longitudinal study compares the development and implementation of multimedia on Swedish broadsheet and tabloid online news sites between 2005 and 2010. It also seeks the reasons behind these developments by interviewing journalists working on the sites. The results show that the initial implementation of multimedia was slow but increased sharply in pace between 2007 and 2008. By 2010, on average, one in four news items had some element of multimedia attached to them. Furthermore, results show that it was the quality papers that were the quickest off the mark rather than tabloids. The antecedents for this advance seem to be a mix of technological capacities, professional norms and economic needs.
It has been suggested that transparency will change the way journalism is being produced as well ... more It has been suggested that transparency will change the way journalism is being produced as well as increase its credibility. However, little research has been conducted to assess the connection between transparency and credibility. This study utilizes an experimental setting with 1320 respondents to measure what impact transparency has on source and message credibility from a user perspective. The results reveal an almost total absence of any transparency effect on either source or message credibility, although some small significant effects could be observed primarily regarding internal hyperlinks, comments and contextual information. Although further research is needed in this area, the study suggests that transparency does not affect the credibility of journalism in the eyes of the contemporary audience and thus has limited appeal as a new norm in journalism.
"Digital media allow for instant tracking of audience behaviour, thus enabling a potential negoti... more "Digital media allow for instant tracking of audience behaviour, thus enabling a potential negotiation between journalists’ traditional authority and professional news values, on the one hand, and the audience’s power in terms of ignoring or paying attention to the journalistic outcome, on the other. The present study investigates whether clicks change news values and have an impact on news routines in tabloid, broadsheet and public service newsrooms.
The findings indicate that audience metrics bring a new dimension to the news evaluation process regardless of publishing tradition, but that the commercial media seem to keep a closer tab on traffic. In general, journalists strive for a “good mix” between customization to achieve audience satisfaction and a desire for editorial independence. "
Hyperlinks are considered vital to both the Web and to digital journalism. This study utilizes a ... more Hyperlinks are considered vital to both the Web and to digital journalism. This study utilizes a longitudinal content analysis of hyperlinking practices in Swedish online news from 2007 to 2013 to see how hyperlinking evolves over time. It also compares if and to what extent publishing tradition shapes journalistic practice. The findings primarily show that the overall impact of hyperlinks remains largely unchanged over time but that internal links, while still being most common, decrease in relative importance while external links increase. The general conclusion is that hyperlinks, so far, are not an important aspect of online journalism practice.
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This paper seeks to investigate how readers perceive software-generated content in relation to similar content written by a journalist. The study utilizes an experimental methodology where respondents were subjected to different news articles that were written by a journalist or software-generated. The respondents were then asked to answer questions about how they perceived the article; its overall quality, credibility, objectiveness etc.
The paper presents the results from a first small-scale study and they indicate that the software-generated content is perceived as, for example, descriptive, boring and objective, but not necessarily discernable from content written by journalists. The paper discusses the results of the study and its implication for journalism practice.
The findings indicate that audience metrics bring a new dimension to the news evaluation process regardless of publishing tradition, but that the commercial media seem to keep a closer tab on traffic. In general, journalists strive for a “good mix” between customization to achieve audience satisfaction and a desire for editorial independence. "
This paper seeks to investigate how readers perceive software-generated content in relation to similar content written by a journalist. The study utilizes an experimental methodology where respondents were subjected to different news articles that were written by a journalist or software-generated. The respondents were then asked to answer questions about how they perceived the article; its overall quality, credibility, objectiveness etc.
The paper presents the results from a first small-scale study and they indicate that the software-generated content is perceived as, for example, descriptive, boring and objective, but not necessarily discernable from content written by journalists. The paper discusses the results of the study and its implication for journalism practice.
The findings indicate that audience metrics bring a new dimension to the news evaluation process regardless of publishing tradition, but that the commercial media seem to keep a closer tab on traffic. In general, journalists strive for a “good mix” between customization to achieve audience satisfaction and a desire for editorial independence. "