Algorithmic Gatekeeping and News Inequality: Artificial Intelligence, Platform Prioritization, and the Future of Journalism in Pakistan

Abstract

The reorganization of journalistic gatekeeping through redefining editorial judgment as an algorithmic one is the most rapidly expanding branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The paper examines the implications of the latter in the Pakistani media system and the nexus between AI adoption, platform ranking and the trends of emerging news inequality. The paper presents an analytical synthesis conceptually of the socio-technological changes that have redefined the newsrooms in South Asia based on the developed Gatekeeping Theory (Shoemaker and Vos, 2009). It is discussed that a booming technological caste system is also being formed in Pakistan where a digital divide in the AI infrastructure can expel voices in the region and in the Urdu language due to an invisibility of algorithms to an increasing extent. In addition, the paper deplores the loss of editorial sovereignty that would arise as a result of depending on the global black-box platforms. The paper will conclude by proposing a hybrid gatekeeping model that dwells on the transparency of algorithms and human-controlled as some of the protective interventions to the future of independent journalism in Pakistan.