8 Introduction
YouTube and Facebook are now responsible for more media consumption than any other group.
The following two chapters are related insofar as they explore some
more of the consequences, intended or otherwise, of automation, first in
the role of gatekeeping and disseminating information, and then in the
form of robot or algorithmic journalism produced by software. With regard to automated gatekeeping, Chapter 3 begins first by looking at how
simplicity of distribution online has affected journalism produced by
people, especially insofar as the lowering of the barriers to distribution
which were originally welcomed as a renaissance of citizen journalism
has also resulted in a surge in highly partisan “alt”-journalism or even
outright lies and propaganda as fake news. Because of the vast quantities of information that are shifted across their servers and networks,
big tech companies such as Facebook rely on software to manage that
flow of data and, as recent events such as the 2016 presidential election
and European Referendum vote demonstrated, that automated process
of gatekeeping has been very open to being gamed. This is not a case of
technology somehow being “outside” (and thus responsive to) social and
human decision-making: what came to light after these highly contentious votes was the level to which large organisations were highly culpable as they sought to monetise their systems. Chapter 4 concentrates
on the role which automation is taking in the production of news. For
practising journalists, this perhaps represents the greatest threat to their
profession personally, and certainly media organisations facing financial
pressures caused by the shift in such things as advertising are looking to
cut costs. However, the evidence as it currently stands draws attention
to the limitations as well as the successes of artificial intelligence: where
it is good – as in writing millions of articles to deadlines that no group
of professionals could ever match – algorithmic journalism is very good.
Yet, such journalism is highly dependent on structured information that
is not always presented in this format in the chaotic and messy environments in which journalists must frequently work. As in many other areas
of technological innovation, algorithmic journalism will probably drive
out humans in very restricted topics but, for the foreseeable future, it
simply cannot reproduce the vast range of cognitive tasks that we take
for granted.
Finally, in Chapter 5, we return to the impact of technology on journalism and the public sphere via three extended case studies which explore the relations between journalists and the citizens they purport to
serve. In the first instance, the recent high-profile example of Infowars,
this is an exploration of the dark, unintended consequences of the new
distribution systems for data, by which social media first allows fake
news to spread without interruption but then, in the space of a few days,
closes down such sites because of the monopolistic power of tech giants. Against this – and with much longer-lasting consequences – the
chapter continues to examine the changes wrought by Jeff Bezos, a
YouTube and Facebook are now responsible for more media consumption than any other group.
The following two chapters are related insofar as they explore some
more of the consequences, intended or otherwise, of automation, first in
the role of gatekeeping and disseminating information, and then in the
form of robot or algorithmic journalism produced by software. With regard to automated gatekeeping, Chapter 3 begins first by looking at how
simplicity of distribution online has affected journalism produced by
people, especially insofar as the lowering of the barriers to distribution
which were originally welcomed as a renaissance of citizen journalism
has also resulted in a surge in highly partisan “alt”-journalism or even
outright lies and propaganda as fake news. Because of the vast quantities of information that are shifted across their servers and networks,
big tech companies such as Facebook rely on software to manage that
flow of data and, as recent events such as the 2016 presidential election
and European Referendum vote demonstrated, that automated process
of gatekeeping has been very open to being gamed. This is not a case of
technology somehow being “outside” (and thus responsive to) social and
human decision-making: what came to light after these highly contentious votes was the level to which large organisations were highly culpable as they sought to monetise their systems. Chapter 4 concentrates
on the role which automation is taking in the production of news. For
practising journalists, this perhaps represents the greatest threat to their
profession personally, and certainly media organisations facing financial
pressures caused by the shift in such things as advertising are looking to
cut costs. However, the evidence as it currently stands draws attention
to the limitations as well as the successes of artificial intelligence: where
it is good – as in writing millions of articles to deadlines that no group
of professionals could ever match – algorithmic journalism is very good.
Yet, such journalism is highly dependent on structured information that
is not always presented in this format in the chaotic and messy environments in which journalists must frequently work. As in many other areas
of technological innovation, algorithmic journalism will probably drive
out humans in very restricted topics but, for the foreseeable future, it
simply cannot reproduce the vast range of cognitive tasks that we take
for granted.
Finally, in Chapter 5, we return to the impact of technology on journalism and the public sphere via three extended case studies which explore the relations between journalists and the citizens they purport to
serve. In the first instance, the recent high-profile example of Infowars,
this is an exploration of the dark, unintended consequences of the new
distribution systems for data, by which social media first allows fake
news to spread without interruption but then, in the space of a few days,
closes down such sites because of the monopolistic power of tech giants. Against this – and with much longer-lasting consequences – the
chapter continues to examine the changes wrought by Jeff Bezos, a