News Agenda Guided by Algorithms: Content and Format in Estadão Infográficos

This paper looks at how Estadão Infográficos use algorithms to examine news scripts and format content; its purpose being to use visuality both in the investigation process and for how the news is presented. We intend to demonstrate how web journalism appropriates the digital tools for innovation and differentiation. Thusly, the methodological procedure was conducted in three stages: interviewing the team members responsible for the menu, selecting those reports that use artificial intelligence techniques, and lastly, conducting a qualitative analysis upon specific concepts to explain cognitive effects that its news narratives create, which are: data visualization, image-synthesis and optical unconscious. Our investigation concluded that the use of algorithms to produce visualizations provides different perspectives of news scripts and builds communication with the public on the internet, despite the fact that this newspaper (O Estado de S. Paulo) does not make much use of this resource.O artigo observa como o Estadão Infográficos emprega algoritmo para prospecção de pautas e formatação do conteúdo, com o propósito do uso da visualidade tanto no processo de investigação quanto na apresentação das notícias. O objetivo é demonstrar como o webjornalismo está se apropriando das ferramentas do ambiente digital para inovação e diferenciação. Assim, o percurso metodológico consiste em três etapas: entrevista a componentes da equipe responsável pelo menu, seleção de reportagens da seção que utilizam técnicas de inteligência artificial e, por fim, análise qualitativa de investigação de conceitos que explicam os efeitos cognitivos provocados pela técnica nas narrativas jornalísticas, sendo: visualização de dados, imagem-síntese e inconsciente ótico. A investigação conclui que o uso de algoritmo na produção de visualizações permite percepção de novas pautas e potencializa a comunicação com o público na internet, mesmo que tal recurso ainda seja pouco explorado pelo jornal O Estado de S. Paulo.El artículo observa cómo Estadão Infográficos emplea algoritmo para prospectar pautas y formatear contenido, con propósito de usar visualidad en el proceso de investigación y en la presentación de noticias. El objetivo es demostrar cómo el periodismo web se apropia de las herramientas del entorno digital para innovación y diferenciación. Así, la trayectoria metodológica consta de tres etapas: entrevista con miembros del equipo responsable del menú, selección de informes de la sección que utilizan técnicas de inteligencia artificial y, finalmente, análisis cualitativo de la investigación de conceptos que explican efectos cognitivos provocados por la técnica en las narrativas de periodismo, siendo: visualización de datos, síntesis de imagen e inconsciente óptico. La investigación concluye que el uso del algoritmo em la producción de visualizaciones permite percepción de nuevas pautas y mejora la comunicación con el público en internet, aunque este recurso todavía es poco explorado por O Estado de S. Paulo.

Anthropological Materialism and the Aesthetics of Film

This chapter contextualizes Walter Benjamin’s film writings in relation to his concept of ‘anthropological materialism’. It argues that some concepts that are central to his writings on film, such as ‘collective body’, ‘second technology’, ‘innervation’, ‘second nature’, and ‘optical unconscious’ should be understood in relation to Benjamin’s particular conception of the body and the transformation of the human sensorium, made possible by the new paradigm of reception opened up by film’s technological nature. For Benjamin, this chapter argues, cinemas are conceived as exemplary training grounds to create a collective body through the innervation of the energy coming from the screen into the audience.

Vizuální nevědomí: vizuální organizace nevizuálního města

This article focuses on the organization of space. The practices through which we grasp and conceive space are the paper’s concern. Practices emanating from the visual organization of space are usually so commonplace for seeing people so that these practices are only poorly reflected in seeing people’s understandings of space. This is why we turn to the experience of visually impaired people. Our understanding of this experience is based on interviews with 16 communication partners from Prague and Brno in 2014 and 2015. We use the poststructuralist approach of philosopher Gilles Deleuze, psychoanalyst Félix Guattari and geographer Marcus Doel to interpret the interviews and we show that visual impairment is not about non-seeing, but about becoming seeing differently – via the non-visual percept. Yet, such practices of seeing space differently are still shaped by the modern collective optical unconscious. Doel asserts that this unconscious has been structured by the medium of film, among others, and the film technique of montage. This has made the optical unconscious obscene. Montage unbound time and space from their firm coordinates and enabled seeing beyond screened frames. This strengthened the incorporeality of spatial experience. Visually impaired people’s practices of seeing and dealing with the optical unconscious accentuate the corporeality of sight again, however. Their practices fuse the seeing via non-visual percept and the optical unconscious into new configurations, demonstrating that no way of seeing can be incorporeal.