Refining automated news? The role of journalistic post-editing in shaping reader perceptions

Thäsler-Kordonouri, Sina (2025): Refining automated news? The role of journalistic post-editing in shaping reader perceptions. In: European Journal of Communication, Bd. 40, Nr. 5: S. 471-490

Abstract

Automating news production can change the composition of news output and negatively affect its evaluation by the readership. Some journalists decide to post-edit automated news texts to improve their quality for the reader – a practice that, although essential to automated journalism, is still largely underexplored. Using a large-scale online experiment with UK online news consumers (N = 4734), this study investigates how readers perceive the changes made during post-editing and whether they achieve the journalistic goal of making the automated articles more appealing. Results show that, regarding the criteria examined, post-editing has no discernible influence on readers’ perception of automated articles. However, compared to manually written texts, it appears that this practice may not always be necessary to receive a positive rating from readers. These findings are discussed in the context of the evolving relationship between journalists and technology in news production and local journalism's decreasing resources.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Sozialwissenschaften > Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung (IfKW)
• Themengebiete: 000 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke > 070 Publizistische Medien, Journalismus, Verlagswesen
• Sprache: Englisch