| In the era of artificial intelligence,algorithms and data are like air in people’s digital life,updating our cognition of the world all the time,changing the working mode of journalists,reshaping the news production,and at the same time,algorithms as non-human actors are weaving the news routine of platform media content operations,together with human journalists.The author adopts the research method of journalism ethnography,and makes a profound study of platform media as a content operation intern.At the practical level,this report specifically focuses on the application of participant observation method to experience the whole process of news and information video production and operation,and to record and organize it;in-depth interviews are conducted with content operators,algorithm engineers and security auditors who are not limited to one platform media,to explore the basic appearance of the news routine of platform media content operation,generation mechanism,risks and their avoidance from the perspective of human-machine interaction.The news routine of content operations is at the heart of this study.This article provides a systematic overview of content operation news routines based on the five major links in the news production process.First of all,the regularity of news sources is found to retain certain qualities of traditional news production sources,while also breaking many long-established habits,bringing more fundamental changes to the news production and dissemination ecology.News sources are instead processed by algorithms,with the typical indirect nature of the platform.The second part is the routine of topic selection.The author found that the criteria for selecting topics has been changed "from the audience" to "user-centered",and value guidance to the audience has become unnecessary,with algorithms becoming the authority to judge topics,driving content operators to cater to users’ interests.In the whole process of topic selection,data is both the basis of algorithm judgment and the embodiment of algorithm operation.The third part presentscontent production conventions,mainly including "content narrative routine" and "content form routine".The news routine content de-ritualization,interactivity and fair sensitivity tendency,under the influence of the algorithm,are discussed in this part.The Fourth part presents the audit routine.The biggest change in the platform media content operation routine is the shift from authoritative practitioner experience-oriented audit to human-machine collaborative rule-oriented audit.Compared to the traditional news production routine,"compliance risk" avoidance has become almost the only logic of the audit routine,with the characteristics of audit rules standardization,audit algorithm lag andaudit sacle controllability.The final step is the publishing and feedback routine.This routine can bring traffic and benefits to the platform in the essence of content operations and the algorithm can join the efficiency of this link.The study found that the algorithm is actually a socio-technical system composed of technology and people,and the logic of political risk,market logic and professional logic are condensed in the algorithm mechanism.The interaction between content operators and the algorithm,a "non-human actor",is deeply embedded in all aspects of news production in a series of patterned,repetitive practices and forms,constituting a powerful pressure to regulate behavior.At the same time,the significant differences between content operations news routines and traditional news routines in the study further reveal the characteristics of the algorithms and platform operating mechanisms.In terms of the generation mechanism of content operation news routines,this study explores the generation mechanism of algorithmic cognition,algorithmic attitude,and routine practice behavior from the perspective of human-computer interaction and based on the psychological "KABP" model,while not ignoring the environmental conditions of behavior and analyzing the social infrastructure of economy,culture,and politics.It is found that content operators’ algorithm cognition is more three-dimensional,and they have formed a conceptual cognition about algorithm,which is not only considered as an impenetrable "black box",but also considered that it can be exploited.There are also perceptions of algorithmic mechanisms that can be summarized as "data-dependent mechanisms","benefit-first mechanisms",and "compliance risk avoidance mechanisms".It will also reflect on the relationship between the algorithm and itself,form the autonomy cognition,and realize the two sides of the algorithmic system.In terms of content operators’ algorithmic attitudes,as platform staff,they are different from platform users.In order to maintain the stability of work performance,free behavioral choices cannot be developed,and the lower autonomy forms a paradox between algorithmic attitudes and specific behaviors of news production,and there is a violation of psychological expectations and burnout on career.The industrialized establishment of platform media and the pursuit of commercial interests by platform media,the reshaping of people’s ideological conceptions of time by technology at the cultural level and the integration of the Internet industry into the national governance system are the three most important environmental influence mechanisms.At the same time,the study also focuses on the broader ethical discussion space chiseled between news production and people by the news conventions of platform media content operations,and explores the "authenticity risk,""news bias risk,""objectivity risk," "news practitioner marginalization risk," and "news "productization’ risk" that specifically emerge under the news conventions of platform media,"objectivity risk","risk of marginalization of journalists" and "risk of ’productization’ of news ".In the new relationship between man and machine in the information building constituted by algorithms and data,it is necessary to continue to start from the perspective of human-computer interaction,set up "meaningful transparency" for platform algorithms by establishing a news review mechanism applicable to platform media,establish a dual central subject of human and non-human in the news routine.In this regard,we need to avoid risks by establishing a review mechanism for platform media,setting up a "meaningful transparency" for platform algorithms,establishing a bicentered subject of human and non-human in the news routine,and re-aligning the ethical relationship between humans and algorithms.In summary,this study focuses on the specific changes brought about by algorithmic automation to news production,and takes the post-journalism practitioners’perceptions and attitudes toward algorithms as the starting point of platform media content operators,discusses in detail the appearance and generation mechanism of the reshaped news routines,and further explores the ethical space expanded by the new news routines and their optimization paths. |
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