Publications

Mobile Journalists as Traceable Data Objects: Surveillance Capitalism and Responsible Innovation in Mobile Journalism

This article discusses how Shosana Zuboff’s critical theory of surveillance capitalism may help to understand and underpin responsible practice and innovation in mobile journalism. Zuboff conceptualizes surveillance capitalism as a new economic logic made possible by ICT and its architecture for extracting and trading data products of user behavior and preferences. In Europe, the framework of responsible research and innovation is promoted as an approach that should inform practice and policy for research and innovation to align with societal values and democratic principles. While the adoption of smartphones as a key tool for producing and consuming news has great potential for innovation, it can also feed behavioral data into the supply chain of surveillance capitalism. The article discusses how potentially harmful implications can be met on an individual and organizational level to contribute to a more responsible adoption of mobile technologies in journalism.

Salzmann, Anja; Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild. 2021. “Mobile Journalists as Traceable Data Objects: Surveillance Capitalism and Responsible Innovation in Mobile Journalism” Media and Communication 9 (2) In press.

Remote Female Fixation—A Grounded Theory on Illegal Sharing of Nude Imagery Online

The classic grounded theory of remote female fixation provides new knowledge on the illegal sharing of sexualized images of young girls in networked online communities. This sharing occurs without consent and usually without the girls knowing about it. The data were gathered from 20 different online comment sections of the Norwegian branch of a global, anonymous community with a reputation for extensive sharing of nude images of young women. It emerged from the data that the forum's users had an ongoing need to master their own female fixations, which they satisfied through the process of remote female fixation. In this process, forum users engaged in four interdependent strategies: continuous competing, loyal including, irregular rewarding,and tactical negotiating. By identifying the forum users' shared concern, this study may help explain the increasing presence of sexual abuse in digital environments.

Otteren, Hilde and Astrid Gynnild. 2021. “Remote Female Fixation—A Grounded Theory on Illegal Sharing of Nude Imagery Online” FQS: Forum Qualitative Social Research, 22 (2) in press.

Adopting a mojo mindset: Training newspaper reporters in mobile journalism

Due to the visual turn in journalism and the emergence of mobile journalism, many newspaper journalists have had to change the way they work. News organizations apply different strategies to increase staff competencies in using new production tools and creating innovative content in new formats. In this paper, we investigate how such a training was experienced by 40 print editors and journalists in a German publishing house. The journalists were introduced to audio-visual storytelling and reporting with smartphones in a 2-week training course. The training arrangements were studied using participant observation and in-depth interviews, followed by a thematic analysis of the data. The study indicates that for print journalists and editors, the transition from the print to the mojo mindset depends on three dimensions: (i) mastering mojo skills, (ii) adopting visual thinking and (iii) integrating ethical and legal awareness.

Salzmann, Anja; Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884921996284.

What to do about deepfakes?

Synthetic media technologies are rapidly advancing, making it easier to generate nonveridical media that look and sound increasingly realistic. So-called "deepfakes" (owing to their reliance on deep learning) often present a person saying or doing something they have not said or done. The proliferation of deepfakes creates a new challenge to the trustworthiness of visual experience and has already created negative consequences such as nonconsensual pornography, political disinformation, and financial fraud. Deepfakes can harm viewers by deceiving or intimidating, harm subjects by causing reputational damage, and harm society by undermining societal values such as trust in institutions. What can be done to mitigate these harms? It will take the efforts of many different stakeholders including platforms, journalists, and policymakers to counteract the negative effects of deepfakes. Technical experts can and should play an active role, the authors point out.

Johnson, Deborah G. and Nicholas Diakopoulos. 2021. “Communications of the ACM” 64 (3), 33-35. DOI: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3447255

Anticipatory Ethics and the Role of Uncertainty

Making conjectures about future consequences of a technology is an exercise in trying to reduce various forms of uncertainty. Both to produce and reason about these conjectures requires understanding their potential limitations. In other words, we need systematic ways of considering uncertainty associated with given conjectures for downstream consequences. In this work, we frame the task of considering future consequences as an anticipatory ethics problem, where the goal is to develop scenarios that reflect plausible outcomes and their ethical implications following a technology's introduction into society. In order to shed light on how various forms of uncertainty might inform how we reason about a resulting scenario, we provide a characterization of the types of uncertainty that arise in a potential scenario-building process.

Nanayakkara, Priyanjka; Nicholas Diakopoulos, and Jessica Hullman. https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.13170

Diffusion of Drone Journalism: The Case of Finland, 2011-2020

This article details Finnish news organizations’ adoption of drones for journalistic purposes from 2011 to 2020. The theoretical starting point of the article is Rogers’ (1962) diffusion of innovations theory, which explains how new ideas and technologies spread in societies. The main empirical data for the study were derived from a phone survey conducted among the 80 most popular newspapers in Finland. The findings reveal that drone journalism in Finland has already diffused from a few pioneering organizations to a large number of newsrooms, including regional, mid-sized newspapers. Most of the newspapers are either using in-house drones, buying commissioned images, or using both strategies. The frequency of use was found to be much higher for those newsrooms using their own drones. Finally, the article ponders possible explanations for different trajectories in the adoption of drones in various countries based on the Finnish case.

Uskali, Turo; Pasi Ikonen, Ville Manninen and Hokkanen Jere. 2020. “Diffusion of Drone Journalism: The Case of Finland, 2011-2020” Media and Communication 8 (3): 75-84. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3075

Agreeing to Surveillance: Digital News Privacy Policies

The shift toward digital distribution has led newspapers to adopt data collection and sharing practices with unexplored ethical consequences. Analysis of the privacy policies of the 15 largest U.S. newspapers reveals what is permitted with regard to the capture of newsreader data and the sharing of such data with advertisers, affiliated companies, and social media. These practices and the related news metrics and analytics are critiqued in light of journalism’s democratic role and traditional support of citizenship. The conclusion offers six recommendations to begin to address these ethical dilemmas through greater transparency and more reader control over data handling.

Adams, Paul. 2020.“Agreeing to Surveillance Digital News Privacy Policies.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020934197

Digital Creativity Support for Original Journalism

This article examines the digital tool INJECT, that helps journalists discover new story angles by offering insight, not search results. The analysis highlighted three important results. (1) That journalists identified more with digital tools to support them when discovering and generating new angles on stories more quickly than now, (2) different creative search algorithms applied to news informations operationalized the strategies for discovering new angles and (3) evaluations of the INJECT digital tool in three newsrooms revealed that it increased the novelty of stories written by journalists, but younger journalists more open to new technology and working more autonomously were more likely to use the tool.

Maiden, Neil et.al. 2020. “Digital Creativity Support for Original Journalism.” Communications of the ACM 63 (8) : 46-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3386526

Anticipating and Addressing the Ethical Implications of Deepfakes in the Context of Elections

New media synthesis technologies are rapidly advancing and becoming more accessible, allowing users to make video and audio clips (i.e. deepfakes) of individuals doing and saying things they never did or said. Deepfakes have significant implications for the integrity of many social domains including that of elections. Focusing on the 2020 US presidential election and using an anticipatory approach, this article examines the ethical issues raised by deepfakes and discusses strategies for addressing these issues. Eight hypothetical scenarios are developed and used as the basis for this analysis, which identifies harms to voters who view deepfakes, candidates and campaigns that are the subjects of deepfakes, and threats to electoral integrity. Four potential forms of intervention are discussed with respect to multi-stakeholder responsibility for addressing harms, including education and media literacy, subject defense, verification, and publicity moderation.

Diakopoulos, Nicholas, and Deborah Johnson. 2020. “Anticipating and Addressing the Ethical Implications of Deepfakes in the Context of Elections.” New Media & Society : 1-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820925811

Engineering Ethics: Contemporary and Enduring Debates

Deborah G. Johnson has written the first engineering ethics textbook to use debates as the framework for presenting engineering ethics topics, this engaging, accessible survey explores the most difficult and controversial issues that engineers face in daily practice. Written by a leading scholar in the field of engineering and computer ethics, Johnson approaches engineering ethics with the premise that engineering is both a technical and a social endeavor and that ethical issues arise in the social practices of the profession that are often intertwined with technical decision making.

Johnson, Deborah G. 2020. Engineering Ethics: Contemporary and Enduring Debates. New Haven, London, Yale University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10sm953

Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World

A research article by Paul Adams that originally appeared in Journalism Studies (2018, V.19, n.4) has been re-published as a book chapter. It appears in Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World, edited by Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. and Kristy Hess (Routledge, 2020), and is Chapter 4, entitled: “Migration Maps with the News: Guidelines for ethical visualization of mobile populations.” The book includes fourteen chapters that explore the intersection between journalism studies and “critical scholarship on social order and social control, nationalism, social media, geography, and the function of news as a social sphere.”Publication facts:Adams, P.C. 2020. “Migration Maps with the News: Guidelines for ethical visualization of mobile populations.”

Gutsche, Robert E., Jr and Kristy Hess. 2020. Reimagining Journalism and Social Order in a Fragmented Media World. New York and London, Routledge. ISBN-13: 978-0367366056. ISBN-10: 0367366053.

“We in the Mojo Community”: Exploring a Global Network of Mobile Journalists

In this article published in Journalism Practice, Anja Salzmann, Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild explore a global network of mobile journalists and media practitioners. The Mojo Community is dedicated to exploring, learning and keeping track of mobile technologies to create multimedia content for journalistic purposes. Based on a qualitative approach the study identifies the community`s domain, structure and role in the context of journalism innovation and change. The core group of "mojo pioneers" comprise "tech-savvy" journalists affiliated with Western legacy broadcast organizations. Members´ mojo engagement is mainly driven by perceived organizational reluctancy towards fast-evolving technological advancements and uncertain job prospects.

Salzmann, Anja, Frode Guribye and Astrid Gynnild. 2020. “We in the Mojo Community: Exploring a Global Network of Mobile Journalists”. Journalism Practice : 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1742772

Immersive Journalism as Storytelling: Ethics, Production and Design. 1st Edition.

This book sets out cutting-edge new research and examines future prospects on 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives.Featuring contributions from the ViSmedia team and a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry.

Uskali, Turo, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones and Esa Sirkkunen. 2020. Immersive Journalism as Storytelling: Ethics, Production and Design. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429437748

Have You Shared the News Today?

This paper by Thomas Wold presents a quantitative analysis of the most shared news stories in on social media in Norway in 2017. Social media is an important platform for news consumption. By sharing links to news stories, the contact network on social media can create its own news agenda.

Wold, Thomas. 2020. “Have you shared the news today?”. Norsk Medietidsskrift 107 (1): 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN.0805-9535-2020-01-04

Constructing the Meaning of Humanoid Sex Robots

Humanoid sex robots seem to challenge the human–machine distinction because one way to engage with them is to entertain the illusion that they are human and appropriate for intimacy. This inclination is intentionally induced by robot designers, and several narratives envision and claim that robots of the future will be indistinguishable from humans. In this article Deborah Johnson is taking an anticipatory ethics approach and using critical discourse analysis, to argue that current discourse about sex robots does not adequately recognize the sociotechnical nature of humanoid sex robot development.

Johnson, Deborah G., and Mario Verdicchio. 2019. “Constructing the Meaning of Humanoid Sex Robots”. Int J of Soc Robotics. 12: 415–424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00586-z

Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture

ViSmedia team member Øyvind Vågenes newest book Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture is filled with exiting essays that’s pioneering and revelatory the insights into the phenomenon of invisibility, forging new and multi-disciplinary approaches at the intersection of aesthetics, technology, representation and politics. The chapters reveal that the invisible affects many cultural domains, from digital communication and operative images to the activism of social movements, as well as to identity, race, gender and class issues. Whether the subject is comic books, photographic provocations, biometric and brainwave sensing technologies, letters, or a cinematic diary.

Grønstad, Asbjørn and Øyvind Vågenes. 2019. Invisibility in Visual and Material Culture. Edited book. Palgrave Macmillan.

Televisual epistemologies and beyond

In this interview by Øyvind Vågnes, media scholar and MIT professor, Lisa Parks shares her reflections on a range of questions that remain central to her research. Including what television is at the present moment and might become in the future; how satellites could be treated as part of an integrated history of media; the compartmentalizations of academia; research on surveillance, and the relationship between surveillance and capitalism; the invisibility and materiality of infrastructure, and the significance of field-based research practices; the entanglement of scholarship and social engagement; the emerging Silicon Valley satellite industry, vertical mediation and political resistance; and the urgency of environmental media studies.

Parks, Lisa. “Televisual Epistemologies and Beyond.” Journal of Visual Culture 18 (2): 234–49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412919864309

How could deepfakes impact the 2020 U.S. elections?

Nicholas Diakopoulos and Deborah Johnson goals behind this article are to stimulate reflection on the ethics and governance of emerging technologies. Specifically, focused on the use of these technologies in the context of the 2020 U.S. election. With this article Diakopoulos and Johnson seeks to encourage debate about potential responses by various stakeholders, like: social media platforms, journalists, technology developers, and policymakers. To ensure that the outcomes of democratic processes aren’t negatively impacted by deepfakes.

Diakopoulos, Nicholas and Deborah Jonson. 2019. “How could deepfakes impact the 2020 U.S. elections?”. Available at: https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/06/how-could-deepfakes-impact-the-2020-u-s-elections/

Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media

ViSmedia team member Nicholas Diakopoulos reveals how machine learning and data mining have transformed investigative journalism. Newsbots converse with social media audiences, distributing stories and receiving feedback. Online media has become a platform for A/B testing of content, helping journalists to better understand what moves audiences. Algorithms can even draft certain kinds of stories. These techniques enable media organizations to take advantage of experiments and economies of scale, enhancing the sustainability of the fourth estate. But they also place pressure on editorial decision-making, because they allow journalists to produce more stories, sometimes better ones, but rarely both. Read more here.

Diakopoulos, Nicholas. 2019. Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media. Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.

The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies 

The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies is a unique reference guide and resource on the rapidly growing and evolving field of journalism scholarship, providing credible and timely information on its key concepts, theories, and methodologies. This invaluable text includes more than 250 entries that form a comprehensive overview of the study of journalism as a distinct field. Two of ViSmedia´s team members hav contributed to this Encyclopedia, Astrid Gynnild with a chapter on Visual Journalism and Turo Uskali with a chapter on Virtual Reality Journalism.

Vos, Tim, P., et.al. 2019. The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN-13: 978-1118841679. ISBN-10: 1118841670.

Why Robots Should Not Be Treated Like Animals

The animal–robot analogy is one of the most commonly used in attempting to frame interactions between humans and robots and it also tends to push in the direction of blurring the distinction between humans and machines. In this article Deborah Johnson argues that, despite some shared characteristics, when it comes to thinking about the moral status of humanoid robots, legal liability, and the impact of treatment of humanoid robots on how humans treat one another, analogies with animals are misleading.

Johnson, Deborah G. and Mario Verdicchio. 2018. “Why robots should not be treated like animals”. Ethics Inf Technol. 20: 291–301. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9481-5

The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies

In The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies ViSmedia member Nicholas Diakopoulos are one of the co-writers of the chapter: Disclose, Decode and Demystify: An Empirical Guide to Algorithmic Transparency.

Eldridge, Scott || and Bob Franklin. 2018. The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies. Edited book. Routledge. ISBN 9781315270449.

Copy of Migrants, Refugees, and the Media The New Reality of Open Societies

Professor and ViSmedia member Paul C. Adams has written the first chapter of the new book; Migrants, Refugees, and the Media The New Reality of Open Societies published by Routledge.

The large-scale movements of refugees and economic migrants from conflict zones to more stable societies have resulted in challenges, both for new entrants and their hosts. This fascinating volume brings together a collection of media analyses focused on immigration issues to examine how migration has been represented to the public.

Khrisna-Hensel, Sai Felicia. 2018. Migrants, Refugees and the Media. Edited book, 1st edition. Routledge. ISBN 9780815377177.

Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple

Authors: Martin Moore, Damian Tambini, Nicholas Diakopoulos, Daniel Trielli, Jennifer Stark, Sean Mussenden

«Across the globe, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have accumulated power in ways that existing regulatory and intellectual frameworks struggle to comprehend. A consensus is emerging that the power of these new digital monopolies is unprecedented and that it has important implications for journalism, politics, and society.» ViSmedia team member Nicholas Diakopoulos is cowriter of chapter 13. «I Vote For—How Search Informs Our Choice of Candidate»

Moore, Martin, et.al. 2018. Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. New York, Oxford University Press.

Business models for academic prototypes: A new approach to media innovation

Authors: Lars Nyre, Joao Ribeiro, Bjørnar Tessem

This article introduces the concept of academic prototypes, and shows how they can lead to technological innovation in journalism. We propose an innovation method that transforms a value-oriented academic prototype into a market-oriented journalistic service. The principles for product development presented here are based on the lean startup method as well as business model canvassing.

Nyre, Lars, Joao Ribero and Bjørnas Tessem. 2018. “Business models for academic prototypes: A new approach to media innovation”. The Journal of Media Innovations. 4 (2): 4-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5617/jomi.v4i2.2616

Data-Driven Storytelling

Nicholas Diakopoulos, Nathalie Henry Riche, Christophe Hurter, and Sheelagh Carpendale have edited this accessible introduction to data-driven storytelling. It offers an integrated definition of the topic, presents vivid examples and patterns for data storytelling, and calls out key challenges and new opportunities for researchers and practitioners. Nicholas Diakopoulos has also co-edited two of the chapters.

Diakopoulos, Nicholas et.al. 2018. “Introduction”. In: Data-Driven Storytelling. Edited Book by Henry Riche, Nathalie, et.al. A. K. Peters, CRC Press.ISBN 9781138197107

Making the News: Digital Creativity Support for Journalists

Authors: Maiden, N; Zachos, K, Brown, A; Brock, G; Nyre, L; Tonheim, A.; Apostolou, D; Evans, J.

This paper reports the design and first evaluations of new digital support for journalists to discover and examine crea-tive angles on news stories under development. The support integrated creative news search algorithms, interactive crea-tive sparks and reusable concept cards into one daily work tool of journalists.

Maiden, Neil, Konstantinos Zachos, Amanda Brown, George Brock, Lars Nyre, Aleksander Nygård Tonheim, Dimitris Apsotolou and Jeremy Evans. 2018. “Making the News: Digital Creativity Support for Journalists”. CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 475: 1-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174049

Droner i sivilsamfunnet (Drones in Civil Society)

What are civil drones, and how can they be used responsibly in our society? These are questions this book, written by Astrid Gynnild, Åke Refsdal Moe, Bente Heggedal, Elisabeth Krauss Amundsen, Helge Veum, Frode Guribye, Lars Nyre, Nils E. Øy, Rune Ottosen, and Øyvind Vågnes. Editor is Astrid Gynnild.

Gynnild, Astrid. (red). 2018. Droner i sivilsamfunnet. Aktører, teknologi og etiske utfordringer. Oslo, Cappelen Damm Akademisk

«Tilhører» A prototype for future radio development (NO)

Authors: Lars Nyre & Jon Hoem

This report presents the development process of the app «Tilhører» , the user interface and the technology behind it. “Tilhører” is an application that present an alternative sound experience, and is a collaborative between researchers from Bergen University College and The University of Bergen.

Hoem, Jon Øyvind and Lars Nyre. 2018. “Tilhører. En prototype på fremtidens omsluttende radio”. Norsk Medietidsskrift 25 (1): 1-19. DOI: 10.18261/ISSN.0805-9535-2018-01-04

Responsible Drone Journalism

The use of camera drones is expanding. Responsible Drone Journalism investigates the opportunities and dilemmas of using drones for journalistic purposes in a global perspective, drawing on a framework of responsible research and innovation (RRI). Edited by Astrid Gynnild and Turo Uskali.

Gynnild, Astrid and Turo Uskali. 2018. Responsible Drone Journalism. Edited book. New York, Routledge.ISBN-13: 978-1138059351ISBN-10: 1138059358

Towards Journalism Everywhere: The New Opportunities and Challenges of Real-Time News Streams in Finland

Turo Uskali has written chapter 13 in the book Mobile and Ubiquitous Media. The volume seeks to provide "a diverse set of critical, theoretical, and international approaches useful to those looking for a more diverse and nuanced understanding of what ubiquitous media means analytically".

Uskali, Turo. 2018. “Towards Journalism Everywhere: The New Opportunities and Challenges of Real-Time News Streams in Finland”. In Daubs, Michael S. and Vincent R. Manzerolle. Mobile and Ubiquitous Media (edited book). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b13289

AI, agency and responsibility: the VW fraud case and beyond

Authors: Deborah G. Johnson & Mario Verdicchio.

The concept of agency as applied to technological artifacts has become an object of heated debate in the context of AI research because some AI researchers ascribe to programs the type of agency traditionally associated with humans. Confusion about agency is at the root of misconceptions about the possibilities for future AI. We introduce the concept of a triadic agency that includes the causal agency of artifacts and the intentional agency of humans to better describe what happens in AI as it functions in real-world contexts.

Johnson, Deborah G. and Mario Verdicchio. 2018. “AI, agency and responsibility: the VW fraud case and beyond”. AI & Soc 34: 639–647. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0781-9

Digital Transparency and Accountability

Tradition is not a safe haven in late modernity, in general and in the press in particular. There is a need for justification and updated legitimation of journalistic practice. In the age of digital journalism, accountability and transparency have been radicalized, and as journalism faces new challenges and undergoes severe reorientations, questions of accountability and transparency are essential. The basic idea that journalism must hold those in power accountable has been well established, but it is similarly imperative that journalism itself is held accountable by an informed citizenry. The thriving industry of digital transparency and accountability instruments bear witness to how serious the situation appears for agents in the journalistic field.

Eide, Martin. 2017. “Digital Transparency and Accountability” in Franklin, Bob and Scott Eldridge || (eds) The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies: 253-262. Routledge.

Drone Vision: Towards a Critique of the Rhetoric of Precision

Øyvind Vågnes investigates photos taken from an unfamiliar angle: From bird's eye view, or the drone's lens view. The article argues that Houtryve’s photographs enable a strategy of “uninventing precision”.

Vågenes, Øyvind. 2017. “Drone Vision: Towards a Critique of the Rhetoric of Precision” Krisis: Tiljdschrift voor actuele filosofie 1: 8-17

Nordic Review 38 (Special Issue 2) 2017

Astrid Gynnild, Maria Nilsson, Anne Hege Simonsen and Hanna Weselius have edited this issue, and contributed with studies about "Photojournalism and Editorial Processes: Global Similarities, Local Differences".

Gynnild, Astrid., Maria Nilsson, Anne Hege Simonsen and Hanna Weselius. 2017. “Introduction: Photojournalism and Editorial Processes. Global Similarities, Local Differences” in Nordicom Review 38, Special Issue 2: 1-5. DOI: 10.1515/nor-2017-0410.

Realistic face manipulation by morphing with average faces

One could create realistic, anonymized faces as an aesthetic alternative to the coarse techniques of blurring or pixelation normally used today. In this proceeding, the authors describe how we can use algorithms for face manipulation from computer vision to anonymize faces in journalism.

Midtun, Joar, Bjørnar Tessem, Simen Skaret Karlsen and Lars Nyre. 2017. “Realistic Face Manipulation by Morphing With Average Faces” NIKT: Norsk IKT-konferanse for forskning og utdanning. Available at: https://ojs.bibsys.no/index.php/NIK/article/view/426

Keeping Reporters Safe: The Ethics of Drone Journalism in a Humanitarian Crisis

Chapter by Turo Uskali and Epp Lauk. Drones have been used for news reporting since 2011. This chapter analyzes several cases of drone journalism in crisis reporting and refers to ethical guidelines for good drone reporting in humanitarian crisis reporting.

Uskali, Turo and Epp Lauk. 2017. “Keeping Reporters Safe: The Ethics of Drone Journalism in Humantarian Crisis”. In Andersen, Robin and Purnaka L. de Silvia (eds) The Routledge Companion To Media and Humanitarian Action. Abingdon, Routledge Handbooks Online. DOI: 10.4324/9781315538129.ch39

Innovating Virtual Reality Experiences For Journalism: The Design Thinking Approach

Conference paper by Heli Väätäjä, Otto Kauhanen, Turo Uskali, Esa Sirkkunen, Chelsea Kelling, Markku Turunen, Vesa Lindqvist. It presents a history of VR and explores VR storytelling for journalism.

Väätäjä, Heli., Otto Kauhanen, Turo Uskali, Esa Sirkkunen, Chelsea Kelling, Markku Turunen and Vesa Lindqvist. 2017. “Innovating Virtual Reality Experiences For Journalism”. The Design Thinking Approach

Assisting Immersive Virtual Reality Development With User Experience Design Approach

Conference paper by Otto Kauhanen, Heli Väätäjä, Markku Turunen, Tuuli Keskinen, Esa Sirkkunen, Turo Uskali, Vesa Lindqvist, Chelsea Kelling, Jussi Karhu. The paper explores how to a biography as a VR experience.

Kauhanen, Otto., Heli Väätäjä, Markku Turunen, Tuuli Keskinen, Esa Sirkkunen, Turo Uskali, Vesa Lindqvist, Chelsea Kelling and Jussi Karhu. 2017. “Assisting immersive virtual reality development with user experience design approach” Academic Mindtrek: 127-136. DOI: 10.1145/3131085.3131126.

Using Baselines for Algorithm Audits

Study by Jennifer A. Stark and Nicholas Diakopoulos. They investigate bias in Google’s image selection for the main search results pages of presidential candidates’ main search results page. The paper indicates that bias may have been introduced by the Google image selection algorithm.

Stark, Jennifer A. and Nicholas Diakopoulos. 2017. “Using Baselines for Algorithm Audits”. European Conference on Data and Computional Journalism.

AI Anxiety

Deborah G. Johnson and Mario Verdicchio identify three factors that give people anxiety about artificial intelligence. The reasons, they argue, may not be what you think they are.

Johnson, Deborah G. and Mario Verdicchio. 2017. “AI Anxiety” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology . DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23867

Enabling Accountability of Algorithmic Media: Transparency as a Constructive and Critical Lens

As the news media adopts algorithmic components into the production of news information, it raises the question of how to maintain an accountable media system. Nicholas Diakopoulos explores algorithmic transparancy.

Diakopoulos Nicholas. 2017. “Enabling Accountability of Algorithmic Media: Transparency as a Constructive and Critical Lens”. In: Cerquitelli,Tania, Daniele Quercia and Frank Pasquale (eds) Transparent Data Mining for Big and Small Data. Studies in Big Data, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54024-5_2

Virtual Reality Prototyping in Journalism: How to Best Collaborate With Agile Methods

In the Virjox projects, journalism scholars, human-computer interaction and computer scientists and media company developers innovate together to figure out how to create the best immersive journalism and other media products. Turo Uskali, Heli Väätäjä and Esa Sirkkunen offer insights into the project.

Uskali, Turo; Esa Sirkkunen and Heli Väätäjä. 2017. “Virtual Reality Prototyping in Journalism: How to Best Collaborate With Agile Methods” Nordicom Information 39 (1): 28-31.

The Visual Power of News Agencies

The visual power of news agencies are expanding as staff photographers are losing their jobs. In this study, Astrid Gynnild discusses the challenged ethical standards and editorial dillemmas through the example of terrorism.

Gynnild, Astrid. 2017. “The Visual Power of News Agencies” Nordicom Review, 38 Special Edition 2: 25-39. DOI: 10.1515/nor-2017-0412

Can Engineering ethics be taught?

The question isn’t whether engineers make moral decisions (they do!), but whether and how ethical decision making can be taught. Skepticism about the possibility of teaching ethics takes multiple forms. This article is based on a chapter from Deborah’s book, Engineering Ethics: Contemporary Debates.

Johnson, Deborah G. 2017. “Can Engineering Ethics Be Taught?”. The Bridge 47 (1): 59-64.

Reframing AI Discourse

Deborah G. Johnson and Mario Verdicchio. The way public understanding of AI is being shaped, often by fear, is a way that may ultimately impede its research. This knowledge leads to a confusion about the notion of ‘autonomy’.

Johnson, Deborah G. and Mario Verdicchio. 2017. “Reframing AI Discourse”. Minds & Machines 27: 575–590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-017-9417-6

Towards Editorial Transparency in Computational Journalism

Pesearch paper by Nicholas Diakopoulos and Jennifer A Stark. It argues that there is a need to develop guidelines or frameworks for how to responsibly and accountably employ algorithms and data in journalism. It describes steps toward transparency with respect to computational journalism drawing from two case studies.

Stark, Jennifer A. and Nicholas Diakopoulos. 2016. “Towards Editorial Transparency in Computational Journalism”.

Journalism in Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Future Research Challenges

Conference paper by Esa Sirkkunen, Heli Väätäjä, Turo Uskali, Parisa Pour Rezai. It looks at what kinds f real-life journalistic VR experiments there have been made so far. Then it analyzes the research literature on journalistic VR.

Sirkkunen, Esa., Hela Väätäjä, Turo Uskali, and Parisa Pour Rezaei. 2016. “Journalism in virtual reality : opportunities and future research challenges”. Academic MindTrek'16 : Proceedings of the 20th International Academic MindTrek Conference : 297-303. New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). DOI: 10.1145/2994310.2994353

Drone Journalism: How to Use Remotely Piloted Camera Drones For Journalism

A report by Epp Lauk, Turo Uskali, and Heikki Kuutti that describes and analyzes the results of the research project called “DroneJournalism: Utilizing Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPA) in Journalistic Purposes”. It is a project that seeks to clarify problems and possibilities of utilizing camera drones for journalistic purposes. In Finnish language.

Lauk, Epp., Turo Uskali and Heikki Kuutti. 2016. “DroneJournalism: Utilizing Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPA) in Journalistic Purposes”.

Rethinking the Social Responsibilites of Engineers as a Form of Accountability

Although there is broad consensus that engineers have social responsibilities, what is owed in the name of social responsibility is not well understood. After briefly reviewing past attempts to understand the social responsibilities of engineers, an account that treats these responsibilities as a form of accountability is sketched. Accountability involves a relationship between an actor and a forum, a shared sense of obligation to explain and justify behavior, and shared norms regarding what needs to be explained, what counts as an adequate explanation, and what consequences might follow. Framing the social responsibilities of engineers as accountability brings to light the multiple actors involved and the activities by which social responsibilities are constituted. Among other things, the account locates the social responsibilities of engineers in the activities of engineering professional organizations, especially when they issue reports on engineering failures. The account also points to the importance of whistleblowing. The idea that social responsibility falls to individual engineers regardless of context or that social responsibility is a decontextualized moral matter is eschewed in favor of understanding engineers’ social responsibilities as constituted through social practices.

Johnson, Deborah G. 2016 “Rethinking the Social Responsibilities of Engineers as a Form of Accountability”. In: Michelfelder Diane P., Byron Newberry and Qin Zhu (eds) Philosophy and Engineering. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology 26. Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45193-0_7

Computational Journalism and the Emergence of News Platforms

Chapter by Nicholas Diakopoulos. Examines the shift in how news organizations are increasingly designing and creating their own tools, products, and even entire platforms through the lens of computational journalism.

Diakopoulos, Nicholas. 2016. “Computational Journalism and the Emergence of News Platforms”. In Scott Eldridge II and Bob Franklin (eds). The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies.

Drone Journalism: The Newest Global Test of Press Freedom

Chapter by Epp Lauk, Turo Uskali, Heikki Kuutti, and Helena Hirvinen. Camera drones are being used increasingly in journalism. This chapter argues that using camera drones for journalistic purposes is the newest global test for press freedom globally.

Lauk, Epp., Turo Uskali, Heikki Kuutti, and Helena Hirvinen. 2016. “Drone Journalism: The Newest Global Test of Press Freedom”. In Carlsson, Ulla (eds) Freedom of Expression and Media in Transition: Studies and Reflections in the Digital Age, pp: 117-125.

Crashing a National Media Event: The Circulation of Social Imaginaries in the Gatecrashers Riots in Finland

Chapter by Taneli Heikka, Katja Valaskivi and Turo Uskali. Investigates the Finnish Independence Day on 6 December, 2013. On this day, violence erupted and several video cameras recorded the event.

Heikka, Taneli., Turo Uskali and Katja Valaskivi. 2016. “Crashing a National Media Event : Circulation of Social Imaginaries in the Gatecrashers Riots in Finland”. In B. Mitu, & S. Poulakidakos (eds.),Media Events : A Critical Contemporary Approach. Palgrave Macmillan.

Social Media Personhood as a Challenge to Research Ethics: Exploring the Case of the Facebook Experiment

Conference paper by Juke Jouhki, Epp Lauk, Maija Penttinen and Turo Uskali. It explores research ethics in the era of social media and big data by discussing a debated Facebook experiment about emotional contagion.

Jouhki, Jukka, Epp Lauk, Majja Penttinen, Jukka Rohila, Niina Sormanen and Turo Uskali. 2015. “Social media personhood as a challenge to research ethics: Exploring the case of the Facebook experiment”.