[Air-L] Online conference: Automation and data-driven journalism beyond the Western world: Actors, practices, and socio-political impact

[Mariëlle W.]

Registration is now open for the online conference ‘Automation and
data-driven journalism beyond the Western world: Actors, practices, and
socio-political impact’ on 5-6 May. In addition to a global line-up of
speakers, the conference features a keynote by Professor Payal Arora
(Erasmus University Rotterdam).

Please visit the conference website for more information about the program:
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/automation-in-media/2021/04/15/conference-program/
<https://blogs.helsinki.fi/automation-in-media/2021/04/15/conference-program/>

Attendance is free, but registration is required. Please register by 3 May
via the registration form available via the conference website.

About the conference:

Algorithmic systems and other data-driven practices exert increasing
influence over today’s societies, reshaping how social and economic systems
function. Algorithms are society’s new “power brokers,” dictating the
stories that we pay attention to, the activities we participate in, and the
people we connect with. The news media is among those industries where
artificial intelligence and algorithms are making strides and reordering
the playing field as their use diversifies and expands.

AI and algorithmic systems are implemented in newsrooms at various stages
of the workflow: from smart tools that assist journalists in producing
stories to the fully automated production of news articles, and from
audience data analysis that informs editorial decisions to algorithmic
recommendation systems that match specific content to users. On social
media platforms, that form an increasingly central node in news
consumption, algorithms not only generate news feeds based on our
acquaintances’ actions and advertisers’ preferences but also perform as
actors with their own judgment. The algorithmic systems employed by social
media platforms, news aggregators and other recommender systems can
therefore affect the journalistic process and professional practices of
media practitioners.

Current scholarly debate on these issues prioritizes and builds upon
empirical studies mostly conducted in democratic, Western contexts. Much
less is known about the drivers of digital innovation uptake and its
socio-political impact in other political and cultural contexts, and this
is problematic. Countries such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, South
Africa and South Korea do implement global or introduce their own AI-driven
tools in their news media. This challenges the mediated reality they
produce and can, in turn, affect global media agendas (e.g., in the
international activities of Chinese Xinhua, Russian RT and Arab Al
Jazeera). At the same time, the socio-political impact of news and
disinformation amplified through social media is evident across the Global
South, where moderation efforts by global platforms lag behind.

This online conference aims to place the discussion of automation and
data-driven journalism beyond the Western and Anglophone world. We build
upon previous research demonstrating that media innovation and its adoption
develop differently depending on the specific characteristics of media and
political systems and markets. Understanding the algorithmic turn in
journalism as a socially constructed process – dependent on a country’s
journalistic culture, news media’s formal and informal institutions, and
the societal role of media – we strive to define an alternative list of
questions to be added to the discussion.

Organisers: Olga Dovbysh (U Helsinki), Hanna Tuulonen (U Helsinki),
Mariëlle Wijermars (Maastricht University and U Helsinki)