#videoautomation – Virtual Conference

Information

The use of automation in journalism is encroaching more and more on what many would consider to be journalists’ core professional roles, such as the identification of story leads, verification, and decisions about which stories are shown, and with what prominence. Automation has also started to play a role in the creation of news texts, initially by helping to generate natural language—the written word—but now also in the production of news videos.

The proportion of consumers who watch online news videos each week has increased substantially—from 24% in 2016 to 67% in 2020 (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2020). Over the same period, there has been an increase in the use of automation in news video production. This online event brings together researchers, technology-providers, and publishers to explore what audiences want from online news video, and whether automation can help deliver.

This event is part of a collaboration between Neil Thurman (LMU Munich) and Meredith Broussard (NYU), funded by the LMU-NYU Research Cooperation Program.

Video Recording

If you missed the conference or want to take your time and reflect on the discussions and learnings, here is a video recording of the virtual event.

We want to thank our speakers and everyone joining us from across all continents and times zones.
Thank you all for being a part of this and see you next year!

Programme

3 December 2020

EST¹	GMT²	CET³
08:30	13:30	14:30	Registration
09:00	14:00	15:00	Session 1: What audiences want from online news videos
			Chair’s opening remarks Florian Stalph, LMU Munich
09:05	14:05	15:05	Michael Koliska (Georgetown University) will present, for the first time, the results of an in-depth interview study with a range of online news consumers. The results reveal what matters to consumers about online news videos, ranging from balance and bias to the presence of music and moving images.
09:30	14:30	15:30	Roundtable discussion Irene Costera Meijer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and University of Bergen Kim Christian Schrøder, Roskilde University, Denmark Joe Pickover, Head of Video, PA Media Mathias Stamm, Head of Programs, Deutsche Welle; and visiting lecturer, German School of Journalism (DJS)
10:00	15:00	16:00	Questions and comments from the floor
10:20	15:20	16:20	Chair’s closing remarks Florian Stalph, LMU Munich
10:25	15:25	16:25	Break
10:40	15:40	16:40	Session 2: How news video automation works and audiences react
			Chair’s opening remarks Nicholas Diakopoulos, Director Computational Journalism Lab, Northwestern University
10:45	15:45	16:45	Neil Thurman (LMU Munich, and City, University of London) will give an overview of automated news production (with a focus on news video) and discuss what’s known about how audiences react.
11:05	16:05	17:05	Sally Stares (City, University of London) will share, for the first time, the results of a survey experiment designed to find out how audiences rate automated news videos against human-made equivalents, and why. The survey experiment is the largest ever carried out, involving a representative sample of 4,200 online news consumers.
11:20	16:20	17:20	Michael Koliska (Georgetown University) discuss, briefly, whether in depth interviews with news consumers paint a different picture of their liking for automated news videos.
11:25	16:25	17:25	Roundtable discussion Richard Canham, Deputy Head of Video at PA Media Tom Powell, TNO, Amsterdam Zohar Dayan, CEO & Co-Founder, Wibbitz Marco Viganò, Digital Chief Technology Officer, Condé Nast Italy
11:40	16:40	17:40	Questions and comments from the floor
11:55	16:55	17:55	Chair’s closing remarks Nicholas Diakopoulos, Director Computational Journalism Lab, Northwestern University
12:00	17:00	18:00	End