Laurence Dierickx
Université Libre de Bruxelles, ReSIC [email protected]
Resumo:
A produção automatizada de notícias é um fenómeno cres- cente que pode ser considerado como uma continuação da automação nas redações, bem como um exemplo paradig- mático do jornalismo baseado em dados. Considerando que nenhum ser humano pode competir com esses sistemas de informação, esta pesquisa pretende focalizar como eles po- dem ser complementares aos jornalistas humanos. Supõe definir a relação entre as tecnologias de jornalismo e auto- mação, estabelecer as condições de uma associação frutuosa homem-máquina e examinar as possíveis incidências da au- tomação nas práticas profissionais. Esta pesquisa é baseada num quadro teórico multidisciplinar, que enquadrou dois es- tudos etnográficos em duas redações belgas em 2017 e 2018. A primeira experiência consistiu no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação web automatizada que coleta, armazena e gera histórias em tempo real, fornecendo análises sobre dados de qualidade do ar em Bruxelas e apoiando um projeto investi- gativo mais amplo. Se os dados estão a fornecer factos, eles não dizem nada sobre as causas e as consequências dos po- luentes do ar. O objetivo da segunda experiência é apoiar os jornalistas da área financeira nas suas rotinas diárias, com a automação de relatos em direto dos dados dos mercados de ações.
Embora tudo pareça separar as duas redações observadas, tanto em termos de tamanho quanto de estrutura, os pontos
342 343 de convergência devem ser encontrados no propósito dessas
tecnologias, que em ambos os casos endossam o duplo sta- tus de objeto e ferramenta do jornalismo. Mas, para serem usadas, as suas características intrínsecas devem encontrar requisitos e valores jornalísticos que devem ser incorpora- dos no design. As representações desempenham um papel importante para moldar os usos e os não-usos e podem evo- luir até ao momento em que a ferramenta é experimentada. Também podem levar a reconsiderar práticas profissionais. Palavras-chave: notícias automatizadas, práticas jornalísti- cas, tecnologias da informação, sociologia dos usos
Abstract:
Automated news production is a growing phenomenon which can be considered as a continuation of automation in news- rooms as well as an avatar of data driven journalism. Con- sidering that no human being can compete with those infor- mation systems, this research intends to focus on how they can be complementary to human journalists. It supposes to define the relationship between journalism and automation technologies, to establish the conditions of a fruitful man-ma- chine association, and to examine the potential incidences of automation on professional practices. This research is based on a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, which has framed two ethnographic studies lead in two Belgian news- rooms in 2017 and 2018.
The first experience consisted in developing an automated web application that collects, stores, and generates real time stories, providing analysis about air quality data in Brussels and supporting a wider investigative project. If data are pro- viding facts, they tell nothing about the causes and the conse- quences of air pollutants. The object of the second experience is to support financial journalists in their daily routines, with the automation of the live reporting of stock markets data.
Although everything seems to separate the two newsrooms observed, both in terms of size and of structure, the points of convergence are to be found in the purpose of these technol- ogies, which in both cases endorse the double status of object and tool of journalism. But to be used, their intrinsic char- acteristics must encounter journalistic requirements and values which should be embedded within the design. Repre- sentations play an important role to shape the uses and the non-uses and they can evolve so far as the tool is experiment- ed. It can also lead to reconsider professional practices. Keywords:
automated news, journalism practices, information technol- ogies, sociology of uses
Introduction
Automated news production is a growing phenomenon due to the conjugation of information technologies which are constant- ly evolving as innovation drivers (Hammond, 2017: 413) and of the increase of the availability of large amounts of data. This phenomenon can also be considered as the continuation of au- tomation in newsrooms (Linden, 2017: 2) as well as an avatar of data driven journalism viewed in the perspective of compu- tational journalism, which can be defined as “the combination of algorithms, data, and knowledge from the social sciences to supplement the accountability function of journalism” (Cohen & alli, 2010: 2).
Considering that human beings cannot compete with machines widely recognized for their strong potentials (high speed level production with fewer errors than human journalists, multilin- gualism, news on demand...) (Graefe 2016: 5), the problem is to define how to make the machines fruitful partners: humans are strong where computers are weak (Brynjolfsson & MacAfee, 2012: 55)? This question is the starting point of a research which aims (1) to study the relationship between journalism and auto- mation technologies, (2) to establish the conditions of a man-ma- chine association in the context of news automation, and (3) to examine its incidences on professional practices.
The theoretical framework of this research is interdisciplinary as the field of automated news production consists in a meeting point between technology (which cannot be considered as for- mally neutral given that it is always the result of human deci- sions) and journalism (which also implies human’s decisions). If both are the results of social constructions, a computational or algorithmic procedure can be seen as a competitor to an editori- al logic because its promises of objectivity cannot be considered as purely mechanical (Gillespie, 2014: 192). The expression of the materiality of an automated content can also be considered as a boundary object, which is the result of a negotiation process
between the actors involved within the innovation project (Fli- chy, 1995).
The formation of uses is a complex mechanism which can be influenced by endogenous factors, related to the organizational context and journalistic routines, and exogenous ones, related to the broader frameworks of the technical imaginary and the man-machine relationship. Uses will so depend on individual and collective constructions, as well as on the imaginary linked to the object itself (Massit-Folléa, 2012). They can be seen as a social construct (Jouët, 2000) and they indiscriminately refer to use, practice or appropriation. A social use refers to a sufficiently common way of use that is sufficiently integrated into everyday life to integrate and become established in existing cultural prac- tices or to become a specific practice (Millerand, 2008), while a technical use refers to the utilitarian use of technology. Those two types of uses are parts of a socio-technical framework, which is based on a technical imaginary mobilized by actors to build a frame of reference that will shape their actions: in this sense, the discourses on uses testify about their representations (Jouët, 1993: 115). Viewed through the lenses of the sociology of uses and of the sociology of innovation, the user is defined as an actor who belongs to a network characterized by interactions and games of power among it. When a final user takes part to the design of the technological artifact, it can be considered as a form of use (Akrich, 2006). However, uses cannot be mechanically deduced by the choices made during the design process (Akrich, 1990: 21). In this research, automated news production is not only con- sidered as an object of journalism, but also as a tool designed to support journalists for their investigative or daily routines. Two case studies within two French-speaking Belgian newsrooms informed the purpose. The first one consisted of developing an automated web application which collects, stores, generates real time stories and provides analysis about air quality data in Brus- sels. The perspective was to see how automation can support journalists in a wider investigative project: if data are providing facts, they tell nothing about the causes and the consequences of Laurence Dierickx Automated news production within the uses and professional practices
346 347 air pollutants, which have to be observed over a relatively long
period of time to give rise to a relevant analysis. The second one aimed to support financial journalists in their daily routines, by providing them automated drafts about stock markets data, which constantly evolve with time.
The size of the two studied social groups of journalists are com- parable (six journalists involved in each experience) but the char- acteristics of the two media are fundamentally different. The first one is a monthly magazine dedicated to social innovations and to society facts, with a business model relying on public funding. It is a small and non-profit structure, which employs a limited number of journalists (five employees). The monthly issue is or- ganized around a dossier which mobilized the whole newsroom as well as freelance journalists when it is needed. One of them participated to this experience as she is specialized in environ- mental issues. The news automation system was developed for the purpose of this research: this particularly immersive side of the research can so be considered as experimental.
The second studied newsroom belongs to a private press group (itself the result of a joint venture between two Belgian press groups) which publishes daily business and economic newspa- per in French and in Dutch. The French-speaking newsroom has around fifty journalists. Six of them are dedicated to the financial service, in charge of a live reporting for the newspaper’s website, in pages called “Market Live” which follow the movements on the principal stock markets in the world. The news automated system was developed by a French tech start-up specialized in natural language generation. This start-up is not only working for media actors and is not considering itself as a media, even though its representatives accept being attracted by this sector. The project was founded by the Google Digital News Initiative, which aim to support innovation in media among Europe.
Method
The ISO900 standards define the concept of quality as “the totally of features and characteristics of a product, a process or a service that bears on its ability to satisfy explicit or implicit needs” (Boydens & Van Hooland, 2014: 281). According to the innovation theory, which is related to “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers, 1995, quoted by Singer, 2004: 4), five factors will make up the adoption of an innovation: its relative advantage, its compatibility, its level of complexity and its testability where results can be observed, and the benefits of the innovation. The concept of compatibility must be understood as: “the degree to which an innovation is per- ceived as consistent with the existing value, past experiences and needs from the potential adopter” (Rogers, 2003: 224). Those complementary approaches, that can be summarized to the “fit- ness for use” principle, was privileged for the two case studies, as the goal of both experiences was to define the conditions of a fruitful man-machine collaboration.
The first hypothesis of this research is that if the information system does not meet the requirements or needs of its final users, it will not be used (quality management). The second hypothesis is that if uses will depend on the representations of the final users (technological imaginary). The third hypothesis is that uses and practices will depend on interactions between the technical and the social where journalistic values are embedded (compatibili- ty). These lead to a consideration of the socio-cultural context of the experience where the technology is seen as the result of inter- actions and mediations between human actors that will conduct the construction of meaning and to the structuration of practices (Latour, 2005, Jouët, 1993, Flichy, 2008). Computational code is here considered as structuring and constituting “the interactions (...) in mediated environments (Geiger, 2014: 23). The sociali- ty of the technology itself is considered as a technical mediation Laurence Dierickx Automated news production within the uses and professional practices
which will allow the complexity of the representations made by the actors appear, as well as their alliances or opposition within “the universe in which their innovation is to be inserted” (Akrich, 1993: 91).
Due to the recent character of the research field, the method- ology is shaped by a multidisciplinary theoretical framework as well by an anthropologic approach, in order to move the point of views around the research’s questions to find points of conver- gence (or of divergence). A first method has relied on participat- ing observation which differed from one experience to the other. The whole process was examined under the lenses of the SCOT theory (Social Construction of Technology), according to which technological artefacts are culturally constructed and interpreted by their users (Pinch & Bijker, 1985). In order to fit the develop- ment process of the two news automation systems, characterized by a suit of stages, it was put in parallel with the software lifecycle (Ghezzi & alli, 2002).
Figure 1. Workflow of the research based on the social construction of technology (SCOT) model
following the software lifecycle.
Source: Own elaboration
In the first case study (name code: “Bxl’air bot’), there were the participation to three editorial meetings, 16 semi-structured in- terviews, a half day of training about the way the information system gathered the data and datajournalism practices, three anonymous online survey and 106 e-mail exchanges with the chief editor and the freelance journalist specialized in environ- ment. In the second case study (name code: “Quotebot”), there were participation in five working sessions with the journalists involved in the project and with the digital new manager, four
Skype calls with the digital news manager and one representative of the tech start-up in charge of the development of the automat- ed system, and four semi-conducted interviews with the digital news manager and three employees of the tech start-up. From a constructivist perspective, my position of researcher was not neutral as I was actively involved in both processes (as develop- er in the first case study, as consultant in the second one). This position, both enriching and uncomfortable for the researcher, allowed me to get a privileged point of view to give sense to the studied social reality (Horvat, 2013) by following these represen- tations and practices over time.