Curation is my entire business and this article only casually mentions what I think is the most important point about why human curation works so well: trust. And, in particular, trust when things get
weird.
When there's a clearly identified brand or person standing behind curation, it has a major effect on the audience and their response, versus a "blameless" automated job. Humans explicitly trust or distrust other humans, whereas trust in software or algorithms is either implicit or of dubious nature.
If I subscribe to a magazine, listen to a radio station, or attend a festival curated by a known figurehead, group of people, or a brand like "The New York Times", that I trust, I know things that I experience that are out of my comfort zone were likely designed to be there. If a news recommendation algorithm throws up something weird (and they always do, alas), I have no idea if it was being smart or just making a mistake.
When there's a clearly identified brand or person standing behind curation, it has a major effect on the audience and their response, versus a "blameless" automated job. Humans explicitly trust or distrust other humans, whereas trust in software or algorithms is either implicit or of dubious nature.
If I subscribe to a magazine, listen to a radio station, or attend a festival curated by a known figurehead, group of people, or a brand like "The New York Times", that I trust, I know things that I experience that are out of my comfort zone were likely designed to be there. If a news recommendation algorithm throws up something weird (and they always do, alas), I have no idea if it was being smart or just making a mistake.