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Hannes Cools

Assistant Professor Human Factor in New Technologies at University of Amsterdam

Hannes Cools is an Assistant Professor of Human Factor in New Technologies at the University of Amsterdam.1 2 He is a researcher specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence and journalism, with a focus on how AI tools impact news reporting and distribution.3

Academic Background and Positions

Cools completed his PhD in December 2022 and subsequently began his postdoctoral research at the AI, Media, and Democracy Lab at the University of Amsterdam.4 He is also affiliated with several other institutions:

Fellow at the Digital Democracy Centre (DDC) at the University of Southern Denmark1
Affiliated researcher at the Brown Institute of Columbia Journalism School in New York City2
Research affiliate at the Culture, Communication and Technology (CCT) Program of Georgetown University1

Research Interests

His primary research areas include:

Generative AI in journalism
Computational journalism
News automation
Algorithmic recommender systems
Newsroom innovation

Cools employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods in his work.3

Professional Experience

Before his academic career, Cools worked as a journalist at De Morgen (DPG Media) in Belgium, covering technology and international politics.2

Recent Publications

Cools has published several papers in prominent journals, including:

"News Automation and Algorithmic Transparency in the Newsroom: The Case of the Washington Post" in Journalism Studies (2024)2
"Where exactly between utopia and dystopia? A framing analysis of AI and automation in US newspapers" in Journalism (2022)2

He has also contributed to a report on "Generative AI in Journalism" for the Associated Press in 2024.2