REPORT: Editorial analytics in news organizations

New Digital News Project 2016 report called Editorial analytics – how news media are developing and using audience data and metrics by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has been published. News organisations are increasingly embracing analytics and metrics as part of editorial decision making. Authors Federica Cherubini and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen study what constitutes a sophisticated analytics strategy. Most … Continued

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Published: 23 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: Computational in journalism

What can and cannot be calculated is not merely a technical question, it is also a deeply social, cultural, political and economic one, writes Taina Bucher, of University of Copenhagen, Denmark. The focus of the newly published study is on the articulation of computational journalism within news organizations. Bucher found three broad claims about the linkage … Continued

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Published: 15 Jan 2016

ARTICLE: Algorithmic journalism no longer fiction

Algorithmic journalism, or ‘robot journalism’, has reached a point of technical viability, writes Konstantin Nicholas Dörr, of University of Zurich. The author analyzed the contemporary state of the art, its potential, and interviewed some of the key players on the field. Despite its limitations natural language generation (NLG), as Dörr calls the process, can perform … Continued

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Published: 9 Nov 2015

ARTICLE: News startups and innovation

News startups have taken on a notable role in the journalism industry. These new organizations are often backed by large investors, venture capital, and technology entrepreneurs. A newly published study by Matt Carlson and Nikki Usher examines 10 news startups by focusing on the manifestos the organizations offer when they introduce themselves to the public. These texts provide examples … Continued

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Published: 1 Sep 2015

MI2015: Takeaways from Symposium on Media Innovations

The fourth International Symposium on Media Innovations was held in Brussels last week. The event invited scholars and industry representatives to discuss how innovation matters in the media industry. We collected the four biggest takeaways for all of you who had the misfortune of being elsewhere. Takeaway 1: The relationship between “privacy” and “data” is shifting … Continued

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Published: 8 Jun 2015

Online first: With computational journalism, a bumpy road to better crime reporting

The adoption of computational journalism in Los Angeles Times significantly changed the form and nature of the paper’s homicide reporting, write Mary Lynn Young and Alfred Hermida, both of University of British Columbia. Evolution of the service was riddled with complications due to lack of both expertise and resources, but the end result was a … Continued

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Published: 24 Nov 2014

Journalists and algorithms are just as credible

Readers consider a story composed by a computer algorithm just as credible as one written by a live journalist, demonstrates a paper by Hille van der Kaa and Emiel Krahmer, both of Tillburg University. The result has attracted interest and surprise after it was presented earlier today at the European communication conference in Lisbon, despite … Continued

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Published: 14 Nov 2014

Online first: Three forms of quantitative journalism

Journalism based on vast amounts of data and numerical information can be divided into three distinct sub-groups, writes PhD. candidate Mark Coddington of University of Texas. According to Coddington, these groups are computer assisted reporting (CAR), data journalism and computational journalism. The typology is meant to support further research over the epistemological foundations of different, … Continued

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Published: 12 Nov 2014