I'm skeptical of the quality of machine-generated news, but the sentiment is still chilling. I think this quote from the article is relavent:
> “News agencies have a huge, huge role setting the tone of the conversation, much, much more than we give them credit for.” (Emphasis theirs)
So much of the global conversation is dominated by a few players, and if any one entity gets the leg up, that's a significant imbalance. This doesn't bode well if the dominant player is a state-run propaganda distributor (I'm aware of the problems that American news outlets have, but this is a whole different ballgame in terms of biased reporting). Even if Xinhua dominance doesn't affect the coverage Americans see, countries with smaller reporting capacities probably won't be so lucky.
> “News agencies have a huge, huge role setting the tone of the conversation, much, much more than we give them credit for.” (Emphasis theirs)
So much of the global conversation is dominated by a few players, and if any one entity gets the leg up, that's a significant imbalance. This doesn't bode well if the dominant player is a state-run propaganda distributor (I'm aware of the problems that American news outlets have, but this is a whole different ballgame in terms of biased reporting). Even if Xinhua dominance doesn't affect the coverage Americans see, countries with smaller reporting capacities probably won't be so lucky.