Automated Journalism

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.