Should editors burn their fingers on algorithms?

Do you only see news about Britney Spears popping up on a newspaper's website? Then there's probably an algorithm gone haywire. How do you safeguard an editor's journalistic mission if automated algorithms determine what you, the reader, get to see? Postdoc Max van Drunen investigated so-called "news personalization. Computerization. 'We have about 300 years of experience with the analogous way of making editorial decisions: journalists determine what goes on the front page of a paper newspaper. Now we are dealing with ''news personalization,'' says Van Drunen. So what are we talking about? ''An article passes by on one person's screen, but not on another's. Those decisions are made automatically based on what people click on and how long they look at something.