The bright side and dark side of emerging technologies in the media industry

Partners: Erasmus University Rotterdam & University of Amsterdam
Type: PhD
Duration: 2023—2027

We are in an increasing need to access personalized, adaptive, and dynamic information in real time. Advanced enabling technologies for Metaverse, such as AI, AR/VR, Web3.0, IoT, NFT, and edge computing, provide us ample possibilities by embedding the information in an appropriate time and space, which provides users new ways to interact with both the physical and the virtual world. 

These emerging technologies are changing the landscape of news organizations and media industries. On the one hand, emerging technologies create new opportunities for news organizations. For example, VR allows users to have a deeper level of interaction, connectedness and empathy with news stories. Robot journalism (i.e., automated journalism) allows news organizations to test headlines, source information and identify trending stories. Wearable journalism, using AR smart glasses or contact lenses, allows instant update and composition of stories. On the other hand, technologies such as image manipulation, deep fakes, fake news certainly speed up the spread of misinformation and pose threats to authentic media. 

This project investigates both the bright side and the dark side that emerging technologies play in the media sector.