Public Service Algorithm: towards a transparent, explainable, and scalable content curation for news content based on editorial values

Abstract: The proliferation of disinformation challenges traditional, unscalable editorial processes and existing automated systems that prioritize engagement over public service values. To address this, we introduce the Public Service Algorithm (PSA), a novel framework using LLMs for scalable, transparent content curation based on Public Service Media (PSM) inspired values. Utilizing a large multilingual news dataset from the 'A European Perspective' project, our experiment directly compared article ratings from a panel of experienced editors from various European PSMs, with those from several LLMs, focusing on four criteria: diversity, in-depth analysis, forward-looking, and cross-border relevance. Utilizing criterion-specific prompts, our results indicate a promising alignment between human editorial judgment and LLM assessments, demonstrating the potential of LLMs to automate value-driven curation at scale without sacrificing transparency. This research constitutes a first step towards a scalable framework for the automatic curation of trustworthy news content.