SciCAR 2019

This talk is about how algorithmic processing affects sports journalism in Germany. We study in a multi-level perspective which strategies data providers, software providers, and media outlets devise regarding the development of automated reporting.
While automated journalism has been studied widely, sports journalism is sidelined with the claim that it needs (human) creativity and emotions. However, US outlets use automation successfully for amateur sports.
Our results show that data and software providers work on refining data collection and software. Journalists are way of automation, which is not only due to ideological, but also to economic reasons: for one outlet, automating amateur sports reporting was not timesaving at all due to quality concerns. Data and software providers support this reasoning, saying that despite data richness and evolving software capabilities, automated reporting is economically viable for only very few sports. All in all, automation in German sports journalism is met with hesitance, showing there is no straightforward way to automation in this beat.