Please find an overview of the planned sessions attached. We are looking forward to welcoming you at the conference on May 5–6, 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