Session Chair: Axel Bruns
Presentation 1
Chat GPT’s Ingestion of News Content: Traffic, Revenue and Erasure of Journalistic Labor
Sangeet Kumar
Denison University, United States of America
This paper analyzes three recent lawsuits against Open AI (the makers of Chat GPT) and two licensing agreements between Open AI and news organizations to argue that generative AI represents a further exacerbation of the precarious relationship between news publishers and information intermediaries. The growth of search engines and digital platforms as the primary means of news consumption has increased contestations around lost traffic and revenue for news publishers. Through the analysis of the lawsuits and licensing agreements, this essays shows three changes in the relationship with significant consequences for the future of the news industry. First it shows that the increasing use of generative AI chatbots (e.g. Chat GPT) will further reduce traffic to publishers' websites.
Secondly, it shows a further opacity in the relationship between publishers and information intermediaries given the lack of disclosure about what is used to train their AI models. Lastly, the analysis shows that the content of news sites will no longer be used "as is" but mixed and merged with other content to erase journalistic labor and contribution. These findings point to worrisome disruptions ahead in the digital news ecosystem where devoid of the precious currency of traffic, news outlets could be pushed further into a precarious position of decreased revenue and content and increasing layoffs. The consequent dismantling of established institutions of the news media also means the loss of rigorous reporting, fact checking, archival knowledge and adversarial journalism that is the lifeblood of democracies.
Presentation 2
The Industrialisation of AI in Journalism: Hype as an Obligatory Passage Point
Nadja Schaetz(1), Anna Schjøtt Hansen(2)
1: Hamburg University, Germany; 2: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Economic precarity and the competitive environment of the news industry have resulted in pressures for journalists to become early adopters and foster AI in journalism. At the same time, practitioners have voiced concerns over overblown expectations of AI, and ethical challenges specific to journalistic contexts. Against this backdrop, the proposed study aims to understand AI hype as an obligatory passage point, which news organizations have to traverse to produce cultural resources and transform them into economic capital. The study draws on eight months of ethnographic field work following the Associated Press’ efforts to develop AI tools for local newsrooms in collaboration with data scientists from various U.S. universities. Preliminary findings show that news professionals can leverage AI hype to mobilize interests of different actors at the intersection of journalism and AI, establish themselves as “agents of media innovations” and increase their status within their network. On one hand, this enables news professionals to leverage AI hype to attract funding and realize AI projects that are well aligned with their journalistic mission. On the other hand, AI hype creates an environment in which journalistic projects that employ AI are often economically better positioned than projects that do not draw on technological innovation. A process which in turn further enforces the role of AI hype as an obligatory passage point.
Presentation 3
“ARG! THE WORLD DOESN’T FIT THE MODEL!”: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION OF HOW DATA SCIENCE PROJECTS DEVELOP AND NEGOTIATE WORLD MODELS IN THE NEWS INDUSTRY
Nanna Bonde Thylstrup(1), Jannie Møller Hartley(2)
1: University of Copenhagen, Denmark; 2: Roskilde University
This paper examines the ethico-political negotiations surrounding "world models" in the news media industry. Utilizing ethnography, it explores how data workers in a news organization integrate AI-driven solutions into the editorial process, navigating the construction of world models. Drawing from six months of fieldwork, the study focuses on a concrete AI project involving collaboration between an in-house data science team, universities, and industrial PhD students. Observation primarily occurred in the development department, with journalists implicitly present as end-users. Methodologically, the paper incorporates insights from the anthropologies of technology and algorithmic systems, framing digitization as multifaceted. It also considers the anticipatory practices of participants and theoretical frameworks from political geography, history of science, and media studies. Theoretical underpinnings are complemented by insights from science and technology studies, particularly regarding "science frictions" that emerge when disparate domains intersect. The findings contribute to critical data studies and AI research, providing ethnographic insights into machine learning projects' mundane work practices and understanding how machine learning projects aim to model the world while also negotiating tensions between reflecting existing realities and shaping future trajectories.
Presentation 4
Platformization Intermediaries: Optimizing News for Platforms in India
Simran Agarwal
LabEx ICCA, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, France
Platformization of news, and the resultant concerns for publishers, have led to the rise and formalization of a network of intermediaries that mediate between news businesses and large distribution platforms in India. They provide infrastructural hardware and software and strategic guidance to news publishers, helping them to tailor their production and optimize their distribution per the requirements of digital platforms. They leverage certified partnerships with major platforms thereby assisting in the complete integration of platforms into the digital news industry. Concurrently, they also offer publishers the services to manage challenges brought on by the platformization of news.
Taking a political economy approach, this study critically examines the economic models and strategies of a range of 'platformization intermediaries' in the news industry in India. This research draws focus to these emerging and influential actors aiding the platformization of news. It highlights their role in reconfiguring the practices of news and the public interest principle of news content, while also reinforcing platform dependencies within the digital news industry.
