Conference program

Please find an overview of the planned sessions attached. We are looking forward to welcoming you at the conference on May 56, 2021!

The registration for attendees without paper can be found here (deadline May 3, 2021): Attendee registration


Automation and data-driven journalism beyond the Western world: actors, practices, and socio-political impact

Conference program

Day 1: May 5, 2021

12:00–12:10 (GMT+3): CONFERENCE OPENING
Mariëlle Wijermars, Olga Dovbysh and Hanna Tuulonen

12:10–13:15 (GMT+3): SESSION 1 – THE POLITICS OF AUTOMATION AND DATA-DRIVEN JOURNALISM 
Moderator: Mariëlle Wijermars (Helsinki University, Finland; Maastricht University, Netherlands)

  • News Reception and Authoritarian Control in a Hybrid Media System: Russian TV Viewers and the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
    Maxim Alyukov (Tyumen University, Russia; Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki University, Finland)
  • Lighter lips, a Bollywood funeral and the Niger elections: Share-It, the algorithmic video news infrastructure for the Global South’s less-connected
    Alette Schoon (Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa)
  • Complexity politics and robot journalism
    Anastasia Golofast (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia)

13:15–13:30 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

13:30–14:45 (GMT+3): SESSION 2 – VALUES AND PRACTICES OF DATA JOURNALISM BEYOND THE WESTERN WORLD
Moderator: Ester Appelgren (Södertörn University, Sweden)

  • The strategic value of data journalism
    Lúcia Mesquita; Mathias Felipe De-Lima-Santos (Dublin City University, Ireland)
  • Telling Data Stories: An Ethnographic Account of Data Journalism in an Indian Newsroom
    Srravya Chandhiramowuli; Bidisha Chaudhuri (International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, India)
  • Moving towards transparency: how the data journalism community in Brazil has contributed to a (mostly) accountable Covid-19 news coverage
    Marilia Gehrke (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil)
  • Trust and reliability of data in authoritarian regime: Practices of data journalism in Russian newsrooms
    Olga Dovbysh (Helsinki University, Finland)

14:45–15.00 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

15:00–16:30 (GMT+3): KEYNOTE PROFESSOR PAYAL ARORA (Rotterdam Erasmus University, Netherlands) – NEXT BILLION USERS, NEXT BILLION JOURNALISTS?

Cheap mobile phones and data plans have brought the “next billion” users online, the vast low-income communities in the global south who are engaging with and shaping the global infosphere and the future of data-driven journalism. Does this translate to Spivak’s subaltern finally gaining voice not just as speakers but as authors, as reporters? This talk pushes against simplistic tropes of empowerment and collective intelligence by looking closely at the politics of Archiving for future facts, the Aesthetics of everyday news-making, and the Affect of digital communalism that impacts newsworthiness.

16:30–17:00 (GMT +3): 30 MIN BREAK

17:00–18:15 (GMT+3): SESSION 3 – AUTOMATION AND PLATFORMISATION OF NEWS
Moderator: Stefanie Sirén-Heikel (Helsinki University, Finland)

  • News Platformisation and Online Content Moderation: Rethinking Media Pluralism Online
    Giovanni De Gregorio (Bocconi University, Italy)
  • More than code: The complex network that involves journalism production in five Brazilian robot initiatives
    Silvia DalBen; Amanda Jurno (Texas University, USA; Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brasil)
  • Automated Journalism beyond Western countries: Determining the type of automated content strategy adopted by La Nacion
    Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos (Navarra University, Spain)

18:15–18:30 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

18:30–19:30 (GMT+3): CLOSING DISCUSSION AND VIRTUAL SOCIALIZING

 

Day 2: May 6, 2021

12:00-13:15 (GMT+3): SESSION 4 – MAPPING ALGORITHMIC JOURNALISM BEYOND THE WESTERN WORLD (1/2): EVIDENCE FROM AFRICAN, CHINESE, INDIAN AND ARAB NEWSROOMS
Moderator: Hanna Tuulonen (Helsinki University, Finland)

  • A study of the human-computer interface axis, with focus on evolving AI in Indian media
    Rahul Dass; Bhavneet Singh Aurora Bennett (Bennett University, Greater Noida, India)
  • Introducing AI inside Al Jazeera newsroom
    Ahmed El Gody (Örebro University, Sweden)
  • Artificial Intelligence in Chinese Newsrooms
    Joanne Kuai (Karlstad University, Sweden)

13:15–13:30 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

13:30–14:45 (GMT+3): SESSION 5 – GOVERNANCE BY INFRASTRUCTURE? AUTOMATION AND MEDIA CONTROL IN RUSSIA
Moderator: Katja Lehtisaari (Tampere University, Finland)

  • Codes of conduct in the Russian search industry: the Yandex.News controversy and its aftermath
    Françoise Daucé; Benjamin Loveluck (EHESS, Paris, France)
  • Leveraging public-private partnerships in effectuating online media control: The case of Russian Netoscope
    Liudmila Sivetc (Turku University, Finland); Mariëlle Wijermars (Helsinki University, Finland; Maastricht University, Netherlands)
  • Pushing an agenda: A computational analysis of Russian media’s push notifications content
    Kirill Bryanov (HSE University, Moscow, Russia)

14:45–15:00 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

15:00–16:15 (GMT+3): SESSION 6 – AI-DRIVEN TECHNOLOGIES IN THE RUSSIAN MEDIA INDUSTRY: TRENDS, ACTORS, AND FUTURE-ORIENTED SOLUTIONS
Moderator: Svetlana Bodrunova (St.Petersburg State University, Russia)

  • AI-driven technologies and the Russian media: the big picture of actors and solutions
    Maria Lukina (Moscow State University, Russia)
  • Artificial intelligence in Russian newsrooms: practices of usage and influence on media content
    Diana Kulchitskaya (Moscow State University, Russia)
  • Perception of AI-driven technologies in the media industry by Russian journalists
    Sergey Davydov (Moscow State University, Russia)
  • AI and media: Debates on innovations in Russian public and scholarship discussions
    Andrey Zamkov (Moscow State University, Russia)

16:15–16:30 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

16:30–17:45 (GMT+3): SESSION 7 – MAPPING ALGORITHMIC JOURNALISM BEYOND THE WESTERN WORLD (2/2): EVIDENCE FROM AFRICAN, LATIN AMERICAN AND INDIAN NEWSROOMS
Moderator: Olga Dovbysh (Helsinki University, Finland)

  • Appropriating AI in the African newsroom: reflections on the South African case
    Trust Matsilele; Wallace Chuma (Cape Town University, South Africa)
  • Mapping the obstacles in the uptake of automated decision-making technologies in Latin America outlets
    Silvia Montaña-Niño (Queensland University of Technology, Australia); Víctor García-Perdomo (Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia)
  • Algorithmic Journalism: Challenges and Opportunities for African Newsrooms
    Ammina Kothari (Rochester Institute of Technology, USA); Sally Ann Cruikshank (Middle Tennessee State University, USA)
  • Smart technologies embraced in newsroom: Role of new forms of journalism with special reference to news industry in the India context
    Dipannita Das; Upadhyay Kumar Ashwani (Symbiosis International University, Pune, India)

17:45–18:00 (GMT +3): 15 MIN BREAK

18:00–19:00 (GMT+3): CLOSING SESSION
Mariëlle Wijermars, Olga Dovbysh and Hanna Tuulonen