i/o: enforcing idealized news making practices through algorithms
TRANSCRIPT
ENFORCING IDEALIZED NEWSMAKING PRACTICES THROUGH ALGORITHMS
I/O
HELLO WORLD_HELLO WORLD_
luc1anø_frizz3ra
ALGØR1THMIC N3WS01010011 01110100 01100001 01110010 01110100
Who (what) will be responsible for writing the news in the future?
A/B TESTINGAUTOMATED NEWS
What if we click on the same link that leads to
the same article but end up reading very
different texts?
How algorithmic media affect some of the core values of newsmaking?
TRADITIONAL MEDIA
JOURNALISM / NEWSMAKING / GATEKEEPINGInstitution residing at the intersection of complex economic organizations and an
equally complex set of norms and procedures.
Keep the public informed.
Newsworthiness News value of an event.
ObjectivityUnbiased and impartial.
EfficiencyMinimum expenditure of time, effort, and money.
GatekeepingRegulate the flow of
information.
ALGORITHMIC NEWS
A collection of rules and of predefined tasks and procedures: intermingle of pre-established technical protocols, codes of
conduct, and an ideological practice of newsmaking.
Functionalities and effects map quite closely with media institution and journalist practices.
Shape user behaviour
Influence public opinion
Impact in content production decisions
DIGITAL MEDIA
DIGITAL MEDIA
ALGORITHMIC NEWS
A new form of encoder/decoder of society, a new gatekeeper ‘organism’ that regulates flows of information.
Formalization of current practices materialized in computer codes: transcoding a set of rules and values already established
by journalism practice into another milieu — into the machine.
Algorithms are opaque, not easy read or to be stopped.
A/B TESTING
A/B TESTING
Half of the audience sees one version and the other half sees the other version. The title with most clicks becomes the final one.
A/B TESTING
Screenshot of a Visual Revenue A/B testing tool.
Permalink reveals the original title on Buzzfeed.
A/B TESTING
▸ Used to improve “engagement”.
▸ Not the most interesting title, but the most effective one.
▸ Click Bait: Manipulate the audience to generate more revenue.
▸ Unauthorized experiment: unethical practice.
▸ Distort the way events are represented: readers cannot know if they are getting the same information as other readers.
AUTOMATED NEWS
▸ ‘Bots’ programmed to read datasets and find/craft meaningful information derived from the data.
▸ Reduce or eliminate human element (efficiency, low cost).
AUTOMATED NEWS
@earthquakeBot
AUTOMATED NEWS
Who, what, why, when, where, and how.
▸ Journalistic writing is easy to automatize.
NARRATIVE SCIENCE
▸ “Narrative Science is humanizing data like never before, with technology that interprets your data, then transforms it into intelligent narratives at unprecedented speed and scale.”
▸ “Beyond simply telling you what the data is, Intelligent Narratives tell you why.”
▸ “The software uses specific sets of data to answer questions about the state of the world for its user”
AUTOMATED NEWS
▸ Machines are perceived as objective and reliable to produce representations of reality: same sort of value long attached to journalism.
▸ Code bias: News value and newsworthiness have to be hard coded into the system.
▸ Data bias: These machines can learn from the data and adjust accordingly.
AUTOMATED NEWS
TAY [AI CHAT BOT]AUTOMATED NEWS
01000101 01101110 01100100 00100000
▸ Strong intersections between the functionality of algorithms and the practice of journalism.
▸ New methods of gatekeeping:
▸ New encoder/decoder of society.
▸ Not just code running on machines: a mix of human editors and machine code designed by humans.
▸ Perpetuates the gatekeeping function and keeps control of flows of information in the hands of large economic organizations.
FORMALIZE IDEALIZED NEWSMAKING PRACTICES AND PROTOCOLS
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOUif (Do you have any question? || Comments?) { >_}
/*
* i/o: enforcing idealized newsmaking practices through algorithms** luciano frizzera* [email protected]* concordia university*/
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