Computing The News

Faced with a full-blown crisis, a growing number of journalists are engaging in seemingly unjournalistic practices such as creating and maintaining databases, handling algorithms, or designing online applications. “Data journalists” claim that these approaches help the profession demonstrate greater objectivity and fulfill its democratic mission. In their view, computational methods enable journalists to better inform their readers, more closely monitor those in power, and offer deeper analysis. In Computing the News, Sylvain Parasie examines how data journalists and news organizations have navigated the tensions between traditional journalistic values and new technologies. He traces the history of journalistic hopes for computing technology and contextualizes the surge of data journalism in the twenty-first century. By importing computational techniques and ways of knowing new to journalism, news organizations have come to depend on a broader array of human and nonhuman actors. Parasie draws on extensive fieldwork in the United States and France, including interviews with journalists and data scientists as well as a behind-the-scenes look at several acclaimed projects in both countries. Ultimately, he argues, fulfilling the promise of data journalism requires the renewal of journalistic standards and ethics. Offering an in-depth analysis of how computing has become part of the daily practices of journalists, this book proposes ways for journalism to evolve in order to serve democratic societies.

This book examines the growing importance of algorithms and automation—including emerging forms of artificial intelligence—in the gathering, composition, and distribution of news. In it the authors connect a long line of research on journalism and computation with scholarly and professional terrain yet to be explored. Taken as a whole, these chapters share some of the noble ambitions of the pioneering publications on ‘reporting algorithms’, such as a desire to see computing help journalists in their watchdog role by holding power to account. However, they also go further, firstly by addressing the fuller range of technologies that computational journalism now consists of: from chatbots and recommender systems to artificial intelligence and atomised journalism. Secondly, they advance the literature by demonstrating the increased variety of uses for these technologies, including engaging underserved audiences, selling subscriptions, and recombining and re-using content. Thirdly, they problematise computational journalism by, for example, pointing out some of the challenges inherent in applying artificial intelligence to investigative journalism and in trying to preserve public service values. Fourthly, they offer suggestions for future research and practice, including by presenting a framework for developing democratic news recommenders and another that may help us think about computational journalism in a more integrated, structured manner. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Digital Journalism.

Computers in Broadcast and Cable Newsrooms: Using Technology in Television News Production takes readers through the use of computers and software in the broadcast/cable newsroom environment. Author Phillip O. Keirstead began writing about television news technology decades ago in an effort to help television news managers cope with technological change. In this text, he demonstrates the myriad ways in which today's journalism is tied to technology, and he shows how television news journalists rely on varied and complex technologies to produce timely, interesting, and informative broadcasts. Using a hands-on, practical approach to cover the role computers play in various parts of the newsroom, the volume will be of great practical value to undergraduate and graduate students in advanced broadcast/news television courses.

Reporters in the newsroom are becoming more involved in computer-assisted reporting and online news research than ever before. This edition introduces readers to computer-assisted reporting and to describe how leading journalists are using personal computers for news gathering in modern print, broadcast, and online newsrooms. It provides a thorough discussion of technology and its applications to news reporting. Computer Assisted Reporting focuses on the computerization of newsgathering, highlighting the fact that the computer assists journalists by making writing easier, and also makes gathering and organizing information more efficient. As it begins, the book demonstrates methods for journalists to get more from their computers, such as data retrieval, data analysis, information storage, and dissemination of that information in both processed and unprocessed forms. It concludes with a refined proposal, originally proposed in the first edition, for five stages for development of computer literacy in the newsroom.

This title gives students an integrated and rigorous picture of applied computer science, as it comes to play in the construction of a simple yet powerful computer system.

Many great advances in technology have resulted from risky experimentation, but it's critical to remember and study the spectacular failures that also resulted from some of those risks. Failures can be mundane, like the typical complaints of software projects that are behind schedule and over budget, while others can be much more extravagant. In Computing Calamities, Robert L. Glass has collected war stories from around the industry. Laugh at these mistakes, and learn from them. Someone else's failure could be the foundation of your success.