Maria Momchilova
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
E-mail: maria.momchilova@gmail.com
Abstract: The merge between the IT giants and media organizations, the destruction of approved standards in content creation and production, the algorithm-assisted spread of news including fake news and post–truth as well as online feed-readers, are the main characteristics of modern media industry which implicate the necessity to redefine the phenomenon of “digital” journalism in media studies. The article explains the process of transformation of tech giants along with their social networks, OS and apps into a model of media organization that can distribute any info product to an audience the size of which goes beyond human imagination, thus imposing on both users and content creators total AI algorithm dependence. However, algorithms cannot distinguish between real news and fake news, they do not comply with the interests of society, they are beyond moral and media standards. Caution is advised in case the omnipotent media organization assisted by the AI might bring about automated limitation to freedom of speech and information flow.
Keywords: digital journalism, media standards, fake news, post-truth, critical thinking, social interest, artificial intelligence (AI).
Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 36, September 2018, rhetoric.bg/, journal.rhetoric.bg, ISSN 1314-4464