| It's definitely a great question. Even if the articles separately would be considered mere reporting, is the creation of the tool part of the journalistic process? Another good one might be whether there's an inherent gain in machine-generated news to play by the same rules and constraints as regular human generated news? Is a traditional news article the correct format for a machine generated news, or if some of the constraints of traditional articles are due to human limitations. Basically, which of the rules of traditional articles are due to the creator and which are there to make it easier to consume the information for the reader. Is there a gain in creating 1 000 articles of company earnings versus condensing or distributing the same (roughly) information in another manner. Mainly, would the reader be able to gain more from news created in another format or medium. What happens here, is it similar to when newspapers moved from print to web? Initially staying in almost the same format as they had been for hundred years? When we talk about tools and intermediate forms in relation to journalism and journalistic process, there's also the question of transparency. Is only the end product journalism, or is the end product only a medium for the message? For example, The Correspondent has been a vanguard in this front in traditional journalism, opening up the intermediate forms of the process to the public. Should we consider for example the aforementioned "thousands of articles on company earnings reports from each quarter" as a intermediate form, rather than the journalistic end product - just a transparent intermediate form? If so, through that lens, is article as a format still the best means for sharing this information? |