The advent of digital technologies, AI, and platforms has impacted a vital pillar for a healthy democracy and enlightened public: the news media ecosystem. The distribution channels of news stories have changed, the pace of news has shifted, and production strategies have been altered. In response to these changes, many news organizations increasingly rely on information from news agencies and competitors. We investigate the outcomes of these interdependencies and uncover novel dynamics in the news ecosystem.
In the project ‘Democratic Implications of Interdependencies in Digital Ecosystems: The Case of Danish News Media’ we uncover how the shifts in interdependencies between news organizations influence 1) the collaborative structure of the news ecosystem, 2) the diversity in the news coverage, and 3) the role of generative AI in news production. This is investigated using mixed methods research designs. We conduct collect big datasets and use computational social science methods, such as network analysis, natural language processing, and inference using large language models (LLMs).
The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Strategic Organization Design and the Digital Democracy Centre at SDU.
Contact:
Emil Bakkensen Johansen, Ph.D. student (emilbj@sam.sdu.dk)