[ecrea] Vacancy Postdoctoral researcher for a study on the adoption of algorithms and Big Data in newsrooms, University of Amsterdam

For the project /Profiling and targeting news readers – implications for 
the democratic role of the digital media, user rights and public 
information policy /the Institute for Information Law 
<https://www.ivir.nl/nl/> (IViR), UvA, is looking for a postdoctoral 
researcher in Communication Science / Journalism / Media Studies.

The postdoctoral researcher will work as part of a multidisciplinary 
team of 1 communication scientist and 2 PhD legal students, led by Prof. 
Natali Helberger. The team will operate within the larger structure of a 
research collaboration between the Institute for Information Law and the 
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) 
<http://www.ascor.uva.nl/>to conduct research into the shift from public 
to personalised communication in the areas of politics, commerce and 
health (“Personalised Communication”).

*Project description*

The postdoctoral researcher will be charged with performing qualitative 
empirical work (participant observation, semi-structured interviews, 
small scale surveys) on the adoption of algorithms and Big Data in 
newsrooms, and on the evolution of algorithmic journalistic practices 
and ethics. The research will be part of a European ERC project 
“Profiling and targeting news readers – implications for the democratic 
role of the digital media, user rights and public information policy 
(PersoNews)” 
<https://www.ivir.nl/projects/profiling-and-targeting-news-readers-implications-for-the-democratic-role-of-the-digital-media-user-rights-and-public-information-policy/>. 
The overall goal of the project is to explore how algorithmic profiling 
and targeting affects the daily routine of the media, the relationship 
between media users and the media, and the emergence of new forms of 
algorithmic journalistic ethics and best practices.

The PersoNews project integrates legal research, communication sciences 
and political sciences, undertakes comparative, normative and 
evidence-based research, and carries out experiments, interviews and 
surveys. The overall project will perform (1) quantitative and 
qualitative research to identify the users’ attitudes and concerns, as 
well as the perceived advantages and costs associated with 
personalisation; (2) study the drivers behind and the obstacles to news 
media personalisation, their effect on journalistic practices and 
whether they translate into new algorithmic journalistic ethics and 
self-regulation concerning the collection, processing, interpretation, 
and use of data; and (3) conduct a legal-normative analysis which will 
critically re-examine the existing regulatory and normative framework, 
identify gaps and make suggestions for future legal design.

The successful candidate will lead the efforts in the second domain 
(drivers, obstacles, opportunities for the integration of data and 
algorithms into newsrooms and emerging data and algorithmic ethics).

*Tasks*

To conduct comparative research, as a member of a multi-disciplinary 
team, into users’ relationship with implicit and explicit media 
personalisation in the EU, (with special focus on the UK, Netherlands 
and Germany), including:

*the formulation of new, inventive research methodology to study this 
domain;

*the design, execution and analysis of cross-country studies based upon 
the multi-sited ethnography of newsrooms, and on interviews, surveys and 
experiments on users’ attitudes and practices;

*the formulation of the theoretical framework in law and communications 
to contextualise the findings;

*expanding the scope and reach of other, similar research initiatives on 
the topic together with the Personalised Communication team;

*supervising master students and perhaps taking on a light teaching task 
(as part of a summer course programme, for example);

*being involved and participating in general project management tasks 
(including the organisation of workshops, quality control, 
dissemination, outreach and acquisition activities).

For requirements, more information and details on the application 
procedure, please visit: 
http://www.uva.nl/shared-content/uva/en/vacancies/2017/09/17-468-postdoctoral-researcher-in-communication-science-journalism-media-studies.html


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