"The Google News Initiative (GNI) aims to collaborate closely with the news industry and financially support the creation of quality journalism in the digital age. It also aims to bring technological advancements and innovation into newsrooms for operations. Drawing on journalism innovation and resp
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onsible innovation theories, this study examines GNI beneficiaries in Africa and the Middle East. To address this, we analysed GNI projects' descriptions combined with thirteen (n = 13) in-depth interviews with leading actors and beneficiary news organisations to answer two main questions: (a) What are the main characteristics of the technological innovations proposed by GNI Innovation Challenge grantees in Africa and the Middle East? and (b) How are these news media organisations becoming increasingly dependent on these platforms' technological and financial aspects? Anchored in journalism innovation, responsible innovation, and platformisation theories, our findings show that funded organisations heavily depend on Google's technological and financial infrastructure to innovate. Furthermore, we note that some projects do not offer a clear path for sustainability in the future. We further argue that this initiative builds an infrastructure of power and dependency that poses risks to responsible innovation in journalism. Our study contributes to extant scholarship on digital platforms and their role in the infrastructure of news organisations, creating power asymmetries between those who serve as the backbone for data flows and technological processes and those dependent on these institutions." (Abstract)
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"The study shows that the data giant’s rise to become a patron of the media began in France, where, responding to political pressure, it set up a 60-million-euro fund to support press publishers’ innovation projects in 2013. The French fund was the blueprint for the Digital News Initiative (DNI)
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that Google launched throughout Europe in 2015 and whose core element was the 150-million-euros Digital News Innovation Fund that the company used to promote innovation projects from 2015 to 2019. Examining the political context of these funding programmes reveals that Google’s initiatives consistently came about in response to growing political pressure, which the company’s managers describe as a “wake-up call” to the corporation. One key issue is the debate surrounding the introduction of a “Google tax” and an ancillary copyright law. Using publicly accessible sources, newspaper articles, press releases, and discussions with industry representatives and Google, the present study sets out how the French Fund and the European DNI became a global undertaking from 2018: the 300-million-dollar Google News Initiative (GNI) [.] the typical beneficiary of a DNI grant was an established, for-profit, western European publisher. Non-profit media and journalism start-ups were not the focus of funding. Across Europe, some three quarters of the funding millions went to commercial media organisations, the largest share – 21.5 million euros – to Germany. Only four of the 28 large projects to receive funding of more than 300,000 euros in Germany were at regional publishers. At the other end of the spectrum are major publishing empires such as Dieter von Holtzbrinck Medien, Funke Mediengruppe, and Gruner + Jahr, each of whom received between 3 and 10 million euros. More precise figures cannot be provided, since neither Google nor the majority of recipients espouse transparency regarding specific funding amounts." (Summary, page 89-90)
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"Der Suchmaschinen-Konzern ist für die Verlagsbranche beinahe unverzichtbar. Doch Googles Dominanz scheint kaum jemand zu stören. Eine Datenanalyse von netzpolitik.org zeigt, wie Google mit einem 150-Millionen-Euro-Programm den Medienverlagen Honig ums Maul schmiert."
"The Digital News Innovation Fund (DNI Fund) is a European programme that’s part of the Google News Initiative, an effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age. The DNI Fund is a €150 million commitment to support and kick-start innovation within the European news ecosystem. Entering its
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third year, the DNI Fund is coming of age, and a community of successful project owners has flourished. We’ve seen projects transform from ideas to remarkable and highly impactful solutions that are already making a difference in newsrooms. In this report, you’ll find a full overview of DNI Fund activity as well as details of many brilliant concepts from across Europe that are tackling four key industry challenges: battling misinformation, telling local stories, boosting digital revenues and exploring new technologies. We hope you enjoy reading about them." (Page 1)
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"Dürfen Medien eigene Projekte von Googles Digital News Initiative finanzieren lassen, führt das zur journalistischen „Schere im Kopf“? Wir haben stellvertretend für die Pro- und Contra-Lager in der Branche Lorenz Matzat (lokaler.de) und Yannick Dillinger (,‚Schwäbische Zeitung“) zum Str
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eitgespräch gebeten." (Seite 50)
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