Sharing the news

Partners: University of Amsterdam
Type: Postdoc
Duration: 2023—2025

Users of technology play a central role in how automated decision systems (ADS) affect the supply and tailoring of public information. How people interact with e.g., personalized news recommendation systems or virtual assistants directly or indirectly affect the functioning of the technology and how public values are realized through it. How do users perceive the role of technology in making news and their own role in the process (as users of algorithmically mediated services, as agents influencing algorithmic processes, and as active distributors of and contributors to content)?

The functioning and legitimacy of the media ultimately depend on the willingness of the public to trust automated processes, and the conditions that must be fulfilled to render ADS trustworthy. We need to better understand how consumers navigate the increased choice-set in selecting or avoiding (public value) news, turn to alternative sources, or develop new strategies to inform themselves. 

The central question is how ADS changes perceptions of what news, journalism, and public values are, and how these perceptions translate into individual behaviour in news consumption and sharing.