Informing the Design of a News Chatbot

Zhirun Zhang; Xinzhi Zhang; Li Chen

doi:10.1145/3472306.3478358

Informing the Design of a News Chatbot

Zhirun Zhang, Xinzhi Zhang, Li Chen

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Chatbots use conversational interfaces to simulate human communication and recently have been applied to different domains due to advancing techniques of natural language understanding and generation. In particular, in the domain of digital journalism, chatbots provide a new channel for audiences to engage with news. However, most chatbots operated by news organizations have so far failed to achieve business growth. In this paper, we have conducted a qualitative user study to better understand users' attitudes towards news chatbots. Specifically, 15 participants were asked to interact with several news chatbots implemented on Facebook Messenger by large international news organizations (e.g., ABC News, NBC News, and BBC News), by issuing a set of 22 sample questions covering various search and recommendation goals related to COVID-19. Then the participants expressed their expectations of news chatbots and the advantages/disadvantages perceived in using them. From these findings, we derive several design guidelines on effectiveness, informativeness, efficiency, humanization, and facility, suggesting developments to news chatbots that may better serve users' needs. © 2021 ACM.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents
Place of Publication	New York, NY
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	224-231
ISBN (Print)	9781450386197
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478358
Publication status	Published - 2021
Externally published	Yes
Event	21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2021): Intelligent Virtual Agents in Global Pandemic - Virtual, Japan Duration: 14 Sept 2021 → 17 Sept 2021 https://sites.google.com/view/iva2021/about

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA

Conference

Conference	21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2021)
Abbreviated title	ACM IVA 2021
Place	Japan
Period	14/09/21 → 17/09/21
Internet address	https://sites.google.com/view/iva2021/about

Research Keywords

conversational agents
design guidelines
News chatbots
qualitative user study

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

Access Output

10.1145/3472306.3478358

Other Access Options

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Permanent Link

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Cite this

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title = "Informing the Design of a News Chatbot",

abstract = "Chatbots use conversational interfaces to simulate human communication and recently have been applied to different domains due to advancing techniques of natural language understanding and generation. In particular, in the domain of digital journalism, chatbots provide a new channel for audiences to engage with news. However, most chatbots operated by news organizations have so far failed to achieve business growth. In this paper, we have conducted a qualitative user study to better understand users' attitudes towards news chatbots. Specifically, 15 participants were asked to interact with several news chatbots implemented on Facebook Messenger by large international news organizations (e.g., ABC News, NBC News, and BBC News), by issuing a set of 22 sample questions covering various search and recommendation goals related to COVID-19. Then the participants expressed their expectations of news chatbots and the advantages/disadvantages perceived in using them. From these findings, we derive several design guidelines on effectiveness, informativeness, efficiency, humanization, and facility, suggesting developments to news chatbots that may better serve users' needs. {\textcopyright} 2021 ACM.",

keywords = "conversational agents, design guidelines, News chatbots, qualitative user study",

author = "Zhirun Zhang and Xinzhi Zhang and Li Chen",

year = "2021",

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language = "English",

isbn = "9781450386197",

series = "Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA",

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booktitle = "IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents",

address = "United States",

note = "21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2021) : Intelligent Virtual Agents in Global Pandemic, ACM IVA 2021 ; Conference date: 14-09-2021 Through 17-09-2021",

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}

Zhang, Z, Zhang, X & Chen, L 2021, Informing the Design of a News Chatbot. in IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents. Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, pp. 224-231, 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2021), Japan, 14/09/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478358

Informing the Design of a News Chatbot. / Zhang, Zhirun; Zhang, Xinzhi; Chen, Li.
IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery, 2021. p. 224-231 (Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

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AU - Zhang, Xinzhi

AU - Chen, Li

PY - 2021

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N2 - Chatbots use conversational interfaces to simulate human communication and recently have been applied to different domains due to advancing techniques of natural language understanding and generation. In particular, in the domain of digital journalism, chatbots provide a new channel for audiences to engage with news. However, most chatbots operated by news organizations have so far failed to achieve business growth. In this paper, we have conducted a qualitative user study to better understand users' attitudes towards news chatbots. Specifically, 15 participants were asked to interact with several news chatbots implemented on Facebook Messenger by large international news organizations (e.g., ABC News, NBC News, and BBC News), by issuing a set of 22 sample questions covering various search and recommendation goals related to COVID-19. Then the participants expressed their expectations of news chatbots and the advantages/disadvantages perceived in using them. From these findings, we derive several design guidelines on effectiveness, informativeness, efficiency, humanization, and facility, suggesting developments to news chatbots that may better serve users' needs. © 2021 ACM.

AB - Chatbots use conversational interfaces to simulate human communication and recently have been applied to different domains due to advancing techniques of natural language understanding and generation. In particular, in the domain of digital journalism, chatbots provide a new channel for audiences to engage with news. However, most chatbots operated by news organizations have so far failed to achieve business growth. In this paper, we have conducted a qualitative user study to better understand users' attitudes towards news chatbots. Specifically, 15 participants were asked to interact with several news chatbots implemented on Facebook Messenger by large international news organizations (e.g., ABC News, NBC News, and BBC News), by issuing a set of 22 sample questions covering various search and recommendation goals related to COVID-19. Then the participants expressed their expectations of news chatbots and the advantages/disadvantages perceived in using them. From these findings, we derive several design guidelines on effectiveness, informativeness, efficiency, humanization, and facility, suggesting developments to news chatbots that may better serve users' needs. © 2021 ACM.

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ER -

Informing the Design of a News Chatbot

Abstract

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Research Keywords

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