Campbell provocatively brings readers to the intersection of journalism, politics, and culture. He advances the bold claim that modern technologies, like AI and algorithms, deepen humans’ reliance on digital communication through media use, e.g., online news consumption, and promote problems such as misinformation and information silos. Campbell’s examination of how digital journalism's processes (re)produce established racial biases is poignant. Campbell centers the concept of automated journalism to demonstrate how advanced communication technologies, insofar as they are human-dependent, display complex ethical entanglements with the bright and dark elements of human behavior and societal structures. He specifically connects digital journalism to the experiences and representations of Black Americans, and examines the implications of the continued evolution of these communication technologies on this group's experiences of subjugation in society. Overall, Campbell argues that as humans become more dependent on this technology, they deepen their commitment to the positive and negative consequences of this technology. He offers compelling insights into the inexorable relationship between humans’ insatiable appetite for information and its adverse effects in the digital age. Automated Journalism is a must read for scholars and students in journalism, media studies, communication, and critical cultural studies. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Choice Reviews

Automated Journalism at the Intersection of Politics and Black Culture investigates issues surrounding AI in journalism with a focus on race in the United States. In this important work, Colin Campbell points out the many instances in AI-assisted journalism where there is a need to rethink and pay extra attention to the role (or lack thereof) of humans in news production and the risk that automated journalism may contribute to the dominance of white media framing, management, and ownership. While bias can be a product of historical injustice, it can also happen because of a lack of diversity in terms of who is in control of setting up the technology, such as automated journalism, that shapes our perception of society.

Ester Appelgren, Södertörn University

Colin H. Campbell masterfully dissects AI-driven journalism’s impact on racial representation, offering a discerning critique of digital hegemony. Insightful and meticulously researched, the volume unveils the ways automated news narratives shape and reflect societal biases, particularly affecting Black communities. A critical contribution to understanding how technology shapes our perception of race and politics, and its ethical and representational implications in contemporary news reporting.

Eddy Borges-Rey, Northwestern University in Qatar