Abstract

Throughout modern history, the introduction of new technologies in journalism has challenged journalistic roles and the normative landscape of journalism, and the emergent use of personalised news recommender systems seems no exception given personalisation’s inherent democratic risk and commercial nature. However, current literature offers limited insight into how these technologies reconcile with the shared ideological norms and beliefs of journalists. This article identifies recurring tensions between journalism’s ideology and increasing commercial pressures in existing literature focusing on illustrative examples of digital technology implementations in journalism, and discusses how personalised news recommendation may recreate or mediate these tensions. The findings suggest that personalised news recommendation can facilitate journalism in service of the public by using value-sensitive algorithmic design that incorporates editorial input and nudges users to view diverse and serendipitous content. The findings additionally emphasise the importance of algorithmic transparency as a constituent element to distinguish nudging that prompts reflective behaviour from manipulation of choice, thus mediating tensions with journalism’s ideological aspirations to be fair and objective. Lastly, the paper calls for a higher level of understanding and interaction between journalists and algorithmic designers to mediate the impact on journalistic autonomy and ease the inherent transfer of editorial authority over distribution.

摘要

纵观现代历史，新技术在新闻业的引入挑战了新闻业的角色和新闻业的规范格局，考虑到个性化固有的民主风险和商业性质，个性化新闻推荐系统的出现似乎也不例外。然而，目前的文献对这些技术如何与记者的共同意识形态规范和信仰相协调提供了有限的见解。本文确定了现有文献中新闻意识形态与不断增加的商业压力之间反复出现的紧张关系，重点关注新闻业数字技术实施的说明性示例，并讨论了个性化新闻推荐如何重新产生或调解这些紧张关系。研究结果表明，个性化新闻推荐可以通过使用价值敏感的算法设计来促进为公众服务的新闻业，该算法设计结合了编辑输入并促使用户查看多样化和偶然的内容。研究结果还强调了算法透明度的重要性，作为一个构成要素，可以区分促使反思行为的轻推与选择操纵，从而调解与新闻业公平和客观的意识形态愿望之间的紧张关系。最后，本文呼吁记者和算法设计者之间有更高层次的理解和互动，以调解对新闻自主权的影响，并缓解编辑权力对分发的固有转移。