The Algorithms Behind Headlines: How machine-written news redefines the core skills of human journalists

Abstract

With the introduction of machine-written news, the automation of journalism has entered a newphase. Algorithms can now automatically generate news stories on the basis of statisticalinformation and a set of stock phrases, without interference from human journalists. This paperanalyses reactions to the launch of a network of machine-written sport websites to see how thisnew technology forces journalists to re-examine their own skills. In their response to thesetechnological developments, journalists define their profession by the tasks that are fulfilled ratherthan the persons who possess the skills and knowledge to fulfil them. Responding to automatednews content, journalists highlight analytical skills, personality, creativity and the ability to writelinguistically complex sentences as important skills defining journalism, rather than factuality,objectivity, simplification and speed. Journalists see ‘‘robot journalism’’ as an opportunity to makejournalism more human. When routine tasks can be automated, journalists will have more timefor in-depth reporting. This view is discussed in the light of the commercialization of news and ofprevious studies on the impact of technological developments on journalistic labour.