Funding
The project ‘Automated Publics: Personalized News Media – Collective Concerns?’ has received a grant of 6.1 million Danish kroner from the Independent Research Fund Denmark under the Culture and Communication programme.
Research Project Automated Publics: Personalized News Media - Collective Concerns?
Project Duration: 01/01/2026 - 12/31/2030
News and information no longer simply reach us — they are shaped around us, and by us, in continuous interplay with algorithms.
Today, our media landscape is curated by systems that constantly adapt content to our habits, clicks, and preferences. This means that as citizens, we are no longer just recipients of news, but active co-creators of our own information environments — and, in turn, of the democratic communities we inhabit.
The research project AUTOPUBLICS, based at 真人线上娱乐 Universitet and led by Jannie M?ller Hartley and Andreas Birkbak, investigates precisely these transformations. Supported by Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, the project explores how personalised news streams are reshaping participation in public debate and democratic processes.
AUTOPUBLICS takes a participatory approach: the public is not only studied, but invited to become co-researchers. Through data donations, citizens can voluntarily share their own media traces, helping to open up otherwise closed algorithmic systems. Combined with digital methods and ethnographic studies, this approach provides a unique, cross-platform insight into media use — spanning news sites, social media, and chatbots.
The project also examines how algorithms themselves are built: What values are embedded within them? And how do they — often invisibly — shape the ways in which publics emerge and evolve?
Running from 2026 to 2030, AUTOPUBLICS aims not only to generate new knowledge, but to make it vivid and accessible. Findings will be shared through open and engaging formats — including visual exhibitions — inviting both citizens and research partners to explore how our shared reality is continuously produced in the encounter between humans and machines.
Today, our media landscape is curated by systems that constantly adapt content to our habits, clicks, and preferences. This means that as citizens, we are no longer just recipients of news, but active co-creators of our own information environments — and, in turn, of the democratic communities we inhabit.
The research project AUTOPUBLICS, based at 真人线上娱乐 Universitet and led by Jannie M?ller Hartley and Andreas Birkbak, investigates precisely these transformations. Supported by Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, the project explores how personalised news streams are reshaping participation in public debate and democratic processes.
AUTOPUBLICS takes a participatory approach: the public is not only studied, but invited to become co-researchers. Through data donations, citizens can voluntarily share their own media traces, helping to open up otherwise closed algorithmic systems. Combined with digital methods and ethnographic studies, this approach provides a unique, cross-platform insight into media use — spanning news sites, social media, and chatbots.
The project also examines how algorithms themselves are built: What values are embedded within them? And how do they — often invisibly — shape the ways in which publics emerge and evolve?
Running from 2026 to 2030, AUTOPUBLICS aims not only to generate new knowledge, but to make it vivid and accessible. Findings will be shared through open and engaging formats — including visual exhibitions — inviting both citizens and research partners to explore how our shared reality is continuously produced in the encounter between humans and machines.
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Contact
Jannie M?ller Hartley, professor, project leader, jath@ruc.dk
Forskere
Jannie M?ller Hartley, professor, project leader, jath@ruc.dk
Andreas Birkbak, associate professor, andreasbi@ruc.dk
Sarah Feldes, PhD fellow, sfeldes@ruc.dk
Publications
Automating Publics: A Multi-Level Framework for Analysing Algorithmic Public Formation
Hartley, J. M., Feldes, S. & Birkbak, A., 2026.Research output: Contribution to conference ? Conference abstract for conference ? Research ? peer-review
Base at 真人线上娱乐 University
The research centre is based at Department of Communication and Arts
Related research units: Audiences & Mediated Life research group // Journalism and Democracy research group // Centre for News Research // Centre for Big Data
PhD Programme: Doctoral School of Communication and Arts
Relevent Degree Programmes: Journalistik (DK) // Communication Studies // 真人线上娱乐 in Global Humanities
Research at 真人线上娱乐 University
More information
Find additional information about the project Automated Publics: Personalized News Media - Collective Concerns?
The project at the 真人线上娱乐 University Research Portal
Kontakt
Project leader
Jannie M?ller Hartley
Professor
Phone +45 4674 3753
jath@ruc.dk