Host institution: University of Zurich (UZH) 🇨🇭
Supervisors: Prof. Natascha Just (UZH) and Prof. Josef Trappel (PLUS)
Academic secondment: Paris Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS) 🇦🇹
Industrial secondment: Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT) 🇧🇪
PhD duration: 3 years
The PhD project is titled: Coping with the challenges of automated content in Public Interest Media.
The Doctoral Candidate will investigate how automated content is used in Public Interest Media and assess the emerging potentials and challenges this creates. The project maps the extent and forms of automated content, with a specific focus on public interest media. It then examines four core challenge areas:
- Journalistic and editorial responsibility — including standards of objectivity, diversity, accuracy, and accountability;
- Legal issues — privacy, data protection, copyright, and intellectual property;
- Ethical concerns — transparency, credibility, bias, manipulation, misinformation, and risks of job displacement;
- Managerial implications for workflows and governance.
The expected outcome is an analysis comparing the opportunities automation offers with the challenges it introduces for journalism and organisational management.