Automating the News

“Moves us forward and spells out with absolute clarity just why algorithms are rewriting the media, and where the wins and the potential losses are.”—Sharon Wheeler, Times Higher Education

“It deserves praise for shedding light on such an important subject… At a time of general anxiety about the future of media, Diakopoulos’ can-do attitude is a refreshing antidote.”—Andrew Lynch, Business Post

“Diakopoulos provides deep discussion of the theory and practice of journalism automation, grounded in significant research and interviews with leading practitioners. The result is a trailblazing book full of information that has not appeared anywhere else.”—Jonathan Stray, Columbia Journalism School

“Algorithms are changing the ways stories are discovered, told, and distributed—for good and for ill. Automating the News expertly explains how the combination of computation and journalism is evolving, with insights of great interest to reporters, researchers, and readers.”—James T. Hamilton, Stanford University

“This book provides a comprehensive, evidence-based, and cautiously optimistic analysis of how automation is changing journalism—and how journalism in turn needs to change to make better use of automation. Diakopoulos documents how technology is increasingly supplementing—not replacing—human work in newsrooms, discusses the potential and very real limitation of new tools, and identifies ways in which reporting can evolve to better hold algorithms and those behind them accountable. An important and actionable analysis.”—Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Reuters Institute, University of Oxford