“GUARDIANS OF THE TRUTH” JOURNALISTS’ RESISTANCE TO THE ALGORITHMIZATION OF JOURNALISM
“GUARDIANS OF THE TRUTH” JOURNALISTS’ RESISTANCE TO THE ALGORITHMIZATION OF JOURNALISM

Summary/Abstract: Regardless of the term used, be it “robot journalism,” “automated journal-ism,” “algorithmic journalism” or “machine-written journalism,” the processof automatic content creation and distribution is progressing in the newsrooms.Meanwhile, exercising control over the creation and distribution of news isconsidered a fundamental element of journalists’ professional identity. Thearticle presents the results of research on the perception of algorithmic contentcreation conducted among journalists in the context of their professional val-ues and identity. The research was conducted with a qualitative method usinga semi-structured interview technique with 18 journalists employed in leadingPolish media. According to the study, algorithmic journalism is perceived byjournalists primarily in the context of posing a threat to the fundamental jour-nalistic principle of providing true information: what they bring to the foreis the potential for creating and spreading fake news. The respondents, whodefended their journalistic professional identity, compared the disadvantagesof algorithmic journalism with the unique competences of “human” journalists, perceiving the latter as advocates of concern for the quality standards of socialdiscourse and as “guardians of the truth.”

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