Recommended for You: How Newspapers Normalise Algorithmic News Recommendation to Fit Their Gatekeeping Role

ABSTRACT

This study contributes with in-depth knowledge on how algorithmic news recommendation is adopted within the Scandinavian daily press and how notions of gatekeeping affect the use of these systems. News recommender systems provide news organisations with new opportunities to offer more relevant and personalised news experiences, but their increasing use has also raised several concerns about whether and how algorithms should undertake important editorial decisions. Current literature offers only limited empirical insight into the actual use of these technologies in journalism, and this study is the first to map the use of and perceptions on algorithmic news recommendation within the Scandinavian news market. Drawing on interviews with all 19 national newspapers within the Scandinavian daily press, the findings reveal that while most newspapers use news recommender systems in some form, the extent of their use is still limited due to concerns over the shared news sphere and a reluctance to transfer editorial control. Some newspapers address these concerns in the use of news recommendation by upholding traditional gatekeeping control on certain parts of the website, while others have built editorial control into the systems themselves, indicating that Scandinavian newspapers normalise algorithmic news recommendation by adopting a traditional gatekeeping role.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism
• gatekeeping
• news recommender systems
• news recommendation
• news personalisation
• news algorithms

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).