IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jftint/v12y2020i7p109-d378183.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employing a Chatbot for News Dissemination during Crisis: Design, Implementation and Evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Theodora A. Maniou

    (Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus)

  • Andreas Veglis

    (Media Informatics Lab, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece)

Abstract

The use of chatbots in news media platforms, although relatively recent, offers many advantages to journalists and media professionals and, at the same time, facilitates users’ interaction with useful and timely information. This study shows the usability of a news chatbot during a crisis situation, employing the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as a case study. The basic targets of the research are to design and implement a chatbot in a news media platform with a two-fold aim in regard to evaluation: first, the technical effort of creating a functional and robust news chatbot in a crisis situation both from the AI perspective and interoperability with other platforms, which constitutes the novelty of the approach; and second, users’ perception regarding the appropriation of this news chatbot as an alternative means of accessing existing information during a crisis situation. The chatbot designed was evaluated in terms of effectively fulfilling the social responsibility function of crisis reporting, to deliver timely and accurate information on the COVID-19 pandemic to a wide audience. In this light, this study shows the advantages of implementing chatbots in news platforms during a crisis situation, when the audience’s needs for timely and accurate information rapidly increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Theodora A. Maniou & Andreas Veglis, 2020. "Employing a Chatbot for News Dissemination during Crisis: Design, Implementation and Evaluation," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-14, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:12:y:2020:i:7:p:109-:d:378183
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/12/7/109/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/12/7/109/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zuiderveen Borgesius, Frederik J. & Trilling, Damian & Möller, Judith & Bodó, Balázs & de Vreese, Claes H. & Helberger, Natali, 2016. "Should we worry about filter bubbles?," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 5(1), pages 1-16.
    2. Andreas Veglis & Theodora A. Maniou, 2019. "Chatbots on the Rise: A New Narrative in Journalism," Studies in Media and Communication, Redfame publishing, vol. 7(1), pages 1-6, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guohui Song & Yongbin Wang, 2021. "Mainstream Value Information Push Strategy on Chinese Aggregation News Platform: Evolution, Modelling and Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Germano, Fabrizio & Sobbrio, Francesco, 2020. "Opinion dynamics via search engines (and other algorithmic gatekeepers)," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    3. Evangelos Lamprou & Nikos Antonopoulos, 2023. "Ranked by Truth Metrics: A New Communication Method Approach, on Crowd-Sourced Fact-Checking Platforms for Journalistic and Social Media Content," Studies in Media and Communication, Redfame publishing, vol. 11(6), pages 231-243, September.
    4. Budzinski, Oliver & Gänßle, Sophia & Lindstädt-Dreusicke, Nadine, 2021. "Data (r)evolution - The economics of algorithmic search and recommender services," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 148, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    5. Herzog, Bodo, 2019. "Optimal policy under uncertainty and rational inattention," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 444-449.
    6. Thomas E. Powell & Toni G. L. A. van der Meer & Carlos Brenes Peralta, 2019. "Picture Power? The Contribution of Visuals and Text to Partisan Selective Exposure," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 12-31.
    7. Kris Hartley & Minh Khuong Vu, 2020. "Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: policy insights from an equilibrium model," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(4), pages 735-758, December.
    8. König Pascal D., 2020. "Why Digital-Era Political Marketing is Not the Death Knell for Democracy: On the Importance of Placing Political Microtargeting in the Context of Party Competition," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 87-110, June.
    9. Andreas Veglis & Theodora Saridou & Kosmas Panagiotidis & Christina Karypidou & Efthimis Kotenidis, 2022. "Applications of Big Data in Media Organizations," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, September.
    10. Pelletier, Mark J. & Horky, Alisha Blakeney & Fox, Alexa K., 2021. "Fexit: The effect of political and promotional communication from friends and family on Facebook exiting intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 321-334.
    11. Sætra, Henrik Skaug, 2019. "The tyranny of perceived opinion: Freedom and information in the era of big data," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    12. Efthimis Kotenidis & Nikolaos Vryzas & Andreas Veglis & Charalampos Dimoulas, 2022. "Integrating Chatbot Media Automations in Professional Journalism: An Evaluation Framework," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-23, November.
    13. Huw C Davies, 2018. "Redefining Filter Bubbles as (Escapable) Socio-Technical Recursion," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(3), pages 637-654, September.
    14. Copland, Simon, 2020. "Reddit quarantined: Can changing platform affordances reduce hateful material online?," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 9(4), pages 1-26.
    15. Sarah Eskens, 2020. "The personal information sphere: An integral approach to privacy and related information and communication rights," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(9), pages 1116-1128, September.
    16. Hyehyun Hong & Hyun Jee Oh, 2020. "Utilizing Bots for Sustainable News Business: Understanding Users’ Perspectives of News Bots in the Age of Social Media," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-16, August.
    17. Anna Gerbrandy, 2019. "Rethinking Competition Law within the European Economic Constitution," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 127-142, January.
    18. Jasper Roe & Mike Perkins, 2023. "‘What they’re not telling you about ChatGPT’: exploring the discourse of AI in UK news media headlines," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    19. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van & Vasiliki Vrana & Nguyen Thien Duy & Doan Xuan Huy Minh & Pham Tien Dzung & Subhra R. Mondal & Subhankar Das, 2020. "The Role of Human–Machine Interactive Devices for Post-COVID-19 Innovative Sustainable Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-30, November.
    20. Kim, Jungkeun & Kim, Jeong Hyun & Kim, Changju & Park, Jooyoung, 2023. "Decisions with ChatGPT: Reexamining choice overload in ChatGPT recommendations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:12:y:2020:i:7:p:109-:d:378183. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.