Media Pluralism and Online News

Media Pluralism and Online News: The Consequences of Automated Curation for Society

Edited By Tim Dwyer and Derek Wilding

Media Pluralism and Online News: The Consequences of Automated Curation for Society reassesses policy ideas of media pluralism in a platformised world. The book analyses how automated curation now shapes the visibility of news content with consequences for how citizens become informed. It arises from an international research project that explores the future of media pluralism policies for online news. It investigates the latest European policies and techniques for regulatory intervention. It examines the consequences of innovative news practices asking, ‘How will automation of news affect public opinion in the age of social media platforms, and what are the consequences?’

The authors make the argument that there is an urgent need for revitalised thinking for a media policy agenda to deal with the trends to platform power and concentrated media power, which is an ongoing global risk to public interest journalism.

In the transition to a media landscape increasingly dominated by broadband internet distribution and the dominance of US-centric new media behemoths Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Netflix the book investigates measures that can be taken to reduce this ongoing march of concentration and the attenuation of media voices.

Securing the public interest in a vibrant and sustainable news media sector will require that merger decisions assess whether there is a ‘reduction in diversity’ -- calling for a new public interest test and a more expansive policy focus than in the past. This would include consideration of the sustainability of local businesses; the encouragement of original and local news content; quality of content, in terms of the promotion of news standards; and new modes of delivery and consumption, including the ‘automated curation’ of news content by digital platforms. 

This book can be obtained in Paperback, Hardback, PDF and EPUB versions.

Tim Dwyer is Associate Professor and Degree Director of the Master of Media Practice at the University of Sydney, a visiting foreign professor at the College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University and a member of IAMCR. 

Derek Wilding is Professor and a Co-Director of the Centre for Media Transition (CMT) at the University of Technology Sydney.

The above text is from the publisher’s description of the book:

Title: Media Pluralism and Online News: The Consequences of Automated Curation for Society
Editors: Tim Dwyer and Derek Wilding
Published: 2023
Pages: 224
Publisher: Intellect

See other books by IAMCR members...