• Fellowships
  • Reports
  • Lab
  • Storyboard
    • Nieman Foundation at Harvard
    HOME
    About
    Subscribe
    Archives
              
    Foundation
    Reports
    Storyboard
    LATEST STORY
    Seeking “innovative,” “stable,” and “interested”: How The Markup and CalMatters matched up
    Business Models Mobile & Apps Audience & Social Aggregation & Discovery Reporting & Production
    ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
    March 17, 2014, 2:23 p.m.
    Reporting & Production
    When robots help human journalists: “This post was created by an algorithm written by the author”
    LINK: www.latimes.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Caroline O'Donovan   |   March 17, 2014

    The East Coast woke up this morning to news that an earthquake had hit Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, folks woke up to…an actual earthquake. But who broke that story?

    Indeed, Ken Schwencke, programmer and journalist at the Los Angeles Times, has been using a bot for more than a year to auto-report and publish newswire-type stories about earthquakes in California.

    Schwenke continues to pursue the possibilities for robot reporting at the Times, even considering the possibility of having one bot talk to another.

    Show tags
     
    What’s the best way to follow how the news is changing?
    Our daily email, with all the freshest future-of-journalism news.
    Prefer a once-a-week email? »
    The latest from Nieman Lab
    Seeking “innovative,” “stable,” and “interested”: How The Markup and CalMatters matched up
    Sarah Scire
    “Objectivity” in journalism is a tricky concept. What could replace it?
    Jonathan Stray
    From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam
    Renee DiResta, Abhiram Reddy, and Josh A. Goldstein
    What journalists and independent creators can learn from each other
    Neel Dhanesha
    Deepfake detection improves when using algorithms that are more aware of demographic diversity
    Siwei Lyu
    Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email.
    Seeking “innovative,” “stable,” and “interested”: How The Markup and CalMatters matched up
    Nonprofit news has seen an uptick in mergers, acquisitions, and other consolidations. CalMatters CEO Neil Chase still says “I don’t think we’ve seen enough yet.”
    “Objectivity” in journalism is a tricky concept. What could replace it?
    “For a long time, ‘objectivity’ packaged together many important ideas about truth and trust. American journalism has disowned that brand without offering a replacement.”
    From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam
    Within days of visiting the pages — and without commenting on, liking, or following any of the material — Facebook’s algorithm recommended reams of other AI-generated content.
    Help advance the Nieman Foundation’s mission “to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” by making a donation.

    To promote and elevate the standards of journalism

    Covering thought leadership in journalism

    Pushing to the future of journalism

    Exploring the art and craft of story
    © 2024 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College  /  Some rights reserved
    Harvard Trademark Privacy Digital Accessibility
    Walter Lippmann House    One Francis Ave.    Cambridge, MA 02138    617 495 2237