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Articles

Vol. 8 No. 2: Fall 2015

Is news liberated or enslaved? Consequences of news aggregation

  • Paweł Wieczorek
Submitted
January 1, 2016
Published
2016-01-01

Abstract

 

This paper discusses the consequences of news aggregation in mobile applications. These applications retrieve news items from the Internet, rank them and subsequently stream in the theme channels automatically. While doing so, they transform the original layout and context of the news. As a result, the news is situated beyond the control of the authors and editors. Is therefore the reference to the news as being “enslaved” justified? The conducted analyses allowed the author to draw different conclusions. News enslavement is about its being protected against aggregators through licences and paywalls. Another question then arises: does observing only selected channels with many news items but on a limited number of topics limit or help the reader? Having considered all the pros and cons, the balance is positive: mobile applications enable readers’ access to the news published on small, unknown and local sites.