Aljosha Karim Schapals

Giving computers a nose for news: exploring the limits of story detection and verification

The use of social media as a source of news is entering a new phase as computer algorithms are developed and deployed to detect, rank, and verify news. The efficacy and ethics of such technology is the subject of this article, which examines the SocialSensor application, a tool developed by a multidisciplinary European Union research project. The results suggest that computer software can be used successfully to identify trending news stories, allow journalists to search within a social media corpus, and help verify social media contributors and content. However, such software also raises questions about accountability as social media is algorithmically filtered for use by journalists and others. Our analysis of the inputs SocialSensor relies on shows biases towards those who are vocal and have an audience, many of whom are men in the media. We also reveal some of the technology’s temporal and topic preferences. The conclusion discusses whether such biases are necessary for systems like SocialSensor to be effective. The article also suggests that academic research has failed to recognise fully the changes to journalists’ sourcing practices brought about by social media, particularly Twitter, and provides some countervailing evidence and an explanation for this failure.

Fake News: Australian and British journalists’ role perceptions in an era of “alternative facts”

Much has been written about the alleged “crisis” of journalism, with narratives of cultural pessimism centred on the decline of legacy news media, and print media in particular. Whilst factually accurate in parts, such narratives offer an incomplete picture not just of how journalism is declining, but also evolving as it transitions in the digital age. This paper is funded by a major Australian Research Council-study of “Journalism beyond the crisis”, a project which seeks to evaluate the emerging assemblage of journalistic forms, practices, and uses in a transnationally comparative study across four different countries. The present study is a first step in investigating how journalists perceive their roles at a time in which the legitimacy of factual accounts of current events is increasingly put into question. To do so, it draws on in-depth interviews with senior journalists based in London and Sydney, providing topical insights into how these practitioners understand their role in an era of “fake news”. The findings indicate that journalists are particularly concerned about a decrease of public trust in the media, and urge colleagues to adapt more rigorous fact-checking techniques – particularly at times when the role of journalism as a “watchdog” over society appears to be most crucial.

Reporting Elections: Rethinking the Logic of Campaign Coverage

What kind of logic do news media follow when reporting elections? And how well do they inform citizens about their democratic choices? These are the two central questions addressed in Stephen Cushion’s and Richard Thomas’s Reporting Elections. And it’s easy to see why their latest work is an especially timely addition in the distinct and growing academic discipline of journalism studies: more than two years after the UK’s divisive ‘Brexit’ vote, political commentators continue to debate the democratic legitimacy of the vote in the first place, and what role the media played in reporting on the ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ campaigns. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump regularly labels media outlets critical of his leadership as “fake news”. At the same time, accusations that Cambridge Analytica, a London-based data-mining firm which has since gone into administration, may have meddled in both the U.S. presidential election as well as the ‘Brexit’ referendum, continue to persist. Such seismic shifts in international politics happen against the backdrop of an equally concerning development observed in the 2017 Reuters Institute Digital News Report: across a sample of 36 countries, less than half of the population (43%) trust the media. So, how can campaign coverage in particular address this, so that it genuinely serves the democratic needs of citizens? Focusing on recent elections in the US and the UK, the authors set out to rethink how election reporting can strengthen democracy – so that the news media continue to fulfil their core function: to submit power to scrutiny and hold politicians accountable for their actions.

Social media at BBC News: the re-making of crisis reporting

The main objective of Social Media at BBC News: The Re-making of Crisis Reporting is to uncover the BBC’s handling of social media before, during and after the London Underground bombings of 7 July 2005, generally referred to as ‘7/7’. What impact did the incorporation of social media into the daily news flow have on the BBC’s editorial policies? To what extent did this development redefine the BBC’s relationship with its audience, and how does the broadcaster reconcile its traditional norms and values with an accelerated news cycle brought about by the emergence of social media? These are just some of the questions Belair-Gagnon has investigated whilst being placed in the BBC’s London newsroom in 2011, providing a rich ethnographic insight into journalistic news production processes at a time of political unrest in the Middle East...

Producing the Internet: critical perspectives of social media

The main objective of Producing the Internet: Critical Perspectives of Social Media is to analyse the newly emerging ‘participatory culture’ the Internet is said to inherit: do users benefit from an increased freedom to raise their voice in virtual environments? Or is the access and distribution of information still in the hands of a selected few? The book aims at critically discussing media transformations, particularly in light of ubiquitous social media platforms that have taken on a vital role in peoples’ lives in recent years. It comprises 13 chapters from international scholars aiming to deepen the reader’s understanding of this new type of media.