News agenda guided by algoritms: Content and format in Estadão Infográficos

Abstract

– This paper looks at how Estadão Infográficos use algorithms to examine news scripts and format content; its purpose being to use visuality both in the investigation process and for how the news is presented. We intend to demonstrate how web journalism appropriates the digital tools for innovation and differentiation. Thusly, the methodological procedure was conducted in three stages: interviewing the team members responsible for the menu, selecting those reports that use artificial intelligence techniques, and lastly, conducting a qualitative analysis upon specific concepts to explain cognitive effects that its news narratives create, which are: data visualization, image-synthesis and optical unconscious. Our investigation concluded that the use of algorithms to produce visualizations provides different perspectives of news scripts and builds communication with the public on the internet, despite the fact that this newspaper (O Estado de S. Paulo) does not make much use of this resource.