Frank Waddell, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Journalism associate professor, will receive a $1,000 research grant from the college honor society Kappa Tau Alpha to investigate audience’s changing expectations for news written by artificial intelligence (AI).

News-writing algorithms have witnessed a surge in their application for automating news production across various domains, ranging from weather and finance to sports. As the prevalence of automated news continues to rise, the scholarly community is increasingly interested in understanding how audiences react to news content generated by automated authors.

Waddell’s research aims to explore readers’ expectations towards automated news. In a rapidly evolving landscape where automation technologies extend their capabilities beyond news-related contexts, he will examine whether readers now expect AI-written news to be more sophisticated.

Waddell, who has served as the KTA chapter adviser at UF since 2017, plans to use the funding to recruit participants using the online crowdsourcing platform Prolific.

Since 2003, Kappa Tau Alpha, the national honor society for journalism and mass communication, has awarded more than $38,000 in grants to KTA chapter advisers to promote scholarship. Kappa Tau Alpha was founded in 1910 at the University of Missouri and has chapters at nearly 100 universities.

Posted: October 19, 2023
Category: AI at CJC News, College News
Tagged as: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Frank Waddell, KTA, News