• Fellowships
  • Reports
  • Lab
  • Storyboard
    • Nieman Foundation at Harvard
    HOME
    About
    Subscribe
    Archives
              
    Foundation
    Reports
    Storyboard
    LATEST STORY
    Two-thirds of news influencers are men — and most have never worked for a news organization
    Business Models Mobile & Apps Audience & Social Aggregation & Discovery Reporting & Production
    ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
    March 17, 2014, 2:23 p.m.
    Reporting & Production
    When robots help human journalists: “This post was created by an algorithm written by the author”
    LINK: www.latimes.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Caroline O'Donovan   |   March 17, 2014

    The East Coast woke up this morning to news that an earthquake had hit Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, folks woke up to…an actual earthquake. But who broke that story?

    Indeed, Ken Schwencke, programmer and journalist at the Los Angeles Times, has been using a bot for more than a year to auto-report and publish newswire-type stories about earthquakes in California.

    Schwenke continues to pursue the possibilities for robot reporting at the Times, even considering the possibility of having one bot talk to another.

    Show tags
     
    What’s the best way to follow how the news is changing?
    Our daily email, with all the freshest future-of-journalism news.
    Prefer a once-a-week email? »
    The latest from Nieman Lab
    Two-thirds of news influencers are men — and most have never worked for a news organization
    Sarah Scire
    The Onion adds a new layer, buying Alex Jones’ Infowars and turning it into a parody of itself
    Joshua Benton
    The Guardian won’t post on X anymore — but isn’t deleting its accounts there, at least for now
    Laura Hazard Owen
    What should journalists do when the facts don’t matter?
    Michael J. Socolow
    I’m a journalist and I’m changing the way I read news. This is how.
    Laura Hazard Owen
    Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email.
    Two-thirds of news influencers are men — and most have never worked for a news organization
    A new Pew Research Center report also found nearly 40% of U.S. adults under 30 regularly get news from news influencers.
    The Onion adds a new layer, buying Alex Jones’ Infowars and turning it into a parody of itself
    One variety of “fake news” is taking possession of a far more insidious one.
    The Guardian won’t post on X anymore — but isn’t deleting its accounts there, at least for now
    Guardian reporters may still use X for newsgathering, the company said.
    Help advance the Nieman Foundation’s mission “to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” by making a donation.

    To promote and elevate the standards of journalism

    Covering thought leadership in journalism

    Pushing to the future of journalism

    Exploring the art and craft of story
    © 2024 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College  /  Some rights reserved
    Harvard Trademark Privacy Digital Accessibility
    Walter Lippmann House    One Francis Ave.    Cambridge, MA 02138    617 495 2237