Journalism at the crossroads of the algorithmic turn

Abstract

At the beginning of the digital age new and complex problems for media system, in particular for journalism, are setting up. Online platforms – the new digital intermediaries - are introducing automated systems for distributing content and information through technologies that control access to online news via search engines, news aggregators and social networks. These are new algorithmic systems of information and news management that become authentic “gatekeepers” of the news. This “algorithmic turn” is a great challenge for the future of journalism whose problems and consequences we address in more detail in this paper.