Google News Initiative: A double-edged sword for journalism
with Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos
We focus on Google News Initiative and its impact on journalism in Africa and the Middle East. Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos (Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil) argues that Google News Initiative is building an infrastructure of power and dependency that could pose risks to responsible innovation in journalism. Could this infrastructure be used to control the flow of information and to undermine the independence of the news media?
Episode based on the article
Google News Initiative’s Influence on Technological Media Innovation in Africa and the Middle East
By Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos, Allen Munoriyarwa, Adeola Abdulateef Elega, and Charis Papaevangelou
Recommended Materials
Media coverage
- https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/07/google-news-initiative-grants-in-africa-and-the-middle-east-yield-mixed-results-study-finds
- https://mpmonitor.org/big-tech-funding-a-band-aid-solution-for-journalisms-struggles
- https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/rethinking-ties-between-media-and-big-tech-4319336
- https://www.poder360.com.br/nieman/doacoes-do-google-na-africa-e-no-oriente-medio-dao-resultados-mistos
- Article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21670811.2022.2155206
- Article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464884917725167
- Article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2103011
- Report: https://www.otto-brenner-stiftung.de/fileadmin/user_data/stiftung/02_Wissenschaftsportal/03_Publikationen/AH103_Google_EN.pdf
- Book: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/media-capture/9780231188838
- Book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-power-of-platforms-9780190908867
About the Speaker
Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos (PhD) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Human(e) AI project at the University of Amsterdam and a research associate in the Digital Media and Society Observatory at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Previously, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Navarra and an Erasmus visiting researcher at the Queensland University of Technology. Mathias-Felipe co-edited the book Journalism, Data and Technology in Latin America published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. His research focuses on the impact of technology on journalism, media, and online social networks.