As do many of the other informants, Larsen emphasizes the “democratic” function of news and the journalistic values. While he is open to the possibility of using algorithms to automate some limited and carefully controlled parts of the newspaper, he insists on the fundamental role of human editors in deciding what readers should know. The newspaper’s role, in Larsen’s view, is not to serve content based on individuals’ past clicking behavior. If something important just happened in the world, “it is our role to inform people about it and say ‘this is important, this is what you need to understand’ ” (Interview 20, March 2014). Key to this public information function is maintaining people’s trust in the newspaper as a credible source. The editors and managers talk about their brand name and the importance of having a distinct editorial line that people recognize. For some, the advent of an algorithmic logic in journalism seems to threaten the unique and recognizable editorial line that people have come to know. As Møller says when I ask about the prospect of using algorithms to personalize Politiken’s front page: “We want Politiken to remain a credible media outlet. The best way to accomplish that is through our own prioritizations, not through something automatic.” People come to Politiken because they know what “we stand for,” Møller adds. He explains, “One of our greatest values as a newspaper is that it is created by people with a specific worldview” (Interview 5, March 2014).
The informants’ concerns about the damaging efects of algorithms are familiar ones. Over the past decade, concerns about the algorithmic creation of so-called filter bubbles and echo chambers—the idea that users only get served more of the same content based on their own clicks—have regularly been voiced (Pariser, 2011). These discourses constitute an important backdrop against which the informants express their own concerns. There was a sense in which the linking of journalism and the computational almost required informants to reflect upon the perceived dangers of algorithmic personalization. While Jens Nicolaisen, digital director at
Programming the News
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