Use and Users of Information
Trustworthy AI View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aileen Macalintal
AI in Journalism has been increasing its market penetration and extending its reach in newsrooms and classrooms from the Global North to the Global South, though with varying levels of resources. AI development in journalism innovation come on the back of trends for AI research efforts and the labor market: research publications and conferences on AI have doubled, the share of AI jobs among job postings in Singapore skyrocketed and surpassed US, Canada, UK, and Australia, AI itself is contributing to the development of AI, and annual global corporate investment in AI rose to $176.5 billion in 2021 from $6.1 billion in 2013. With increasing academic and business interests, Asian newsrooms are taking either rapid or measured strides in developing their suite of AI experiences that leverage automation and business models that are flexible enough to absorb shocks from constant digital transformation and disruption. Using Computer Assisted Web Interviewing, the study contributes a comparative overview of AI perceptions, plans, content, and ethics in online news platforms in a developed and a developing country in Southeast Asia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Media Consumption Habits and Current Concerns: How the Penetration of Social Media Is Impacting the Perceived Urgency of Issues View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session José Carlos del Ama
This study explores the perceived urgency of issues in our students' population. Since McCombs and Shaw articulated the agenda setting effect of mass media, a plethora of studies has shown the relationship between the issue relevance in the media coverage and the weight in the public agenda. Both political actors and media professionals learned the lesson and have been instrumentally using those issues to extract political capital. This study aims to find out which are the current affairs that most concern the participants. The answers of our students allow us to establish a ranking of priorities, starting with climate change, to immigration, to police brutality to systemic racism. After assessing the hierarchy of worries, we study the intensity of the feelings. The outcomes render a map of the anxieties of our student population. In the second phase of the study, we establish a correlation between the perceived urgency of the issues and both ideological background and party affiliation. Finally, we bring media habits into the equation. We analyze, first, the level of information in the different issues. Then, we identify patterns of media usage, as well as the sources our students resort to for information. Our findings show a brutal penetrations of social media. These platforms have become the most frequent source of information for our students, practically wiping out the traditional news channels. Furthermore, the study also show a strong correlation between the perceived urgency of the issues, the level of information and the ideological inclination.
