Algorithmic Journalism—Current Applications and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Journalism, more so than other professions, is entangled with technology in a unique and profoundly impactful way. In this context, the technological developments of the past decades have fundamentally impacted the journalistic profession in more ways than one, opening up new possibilities and simultaneously creating a number of concerns for people working in the media industry. The changes that were brought about by the rise of automation and algorithmic technology can mainly be observed in four distinct fields of application within journalism: automated content production, data mining, news dissemination and content optimization. This article focuses on algorithmic journalism and aims to highlight the ways that algorithmic technology is being utilized within those fields, as well as pointing out the ways in which these developments have altered the way journalism is being exercised in the modern world. The study also discusses challenges related to these technologies that are yet to be addressed, as well as potential future implementations related to algorithmic journalism that have the capacity to improve on the foundation of automation in the news industry.

Keywords

• algorithmic journalism
• automated content production
• natural language generation
• data mining
• news dissemination
• content optimization