AI in Journalism

LSE IR245: International Journalism essay

The integration of Artificial Intelligence into the journalism industry has revolutionized many aspects of traditional journalism, resulting in higher levels of efficiency along with some new challenges. One of AI’s most notable contributions to journalism is within the news-gathering process. AI can now automate many tedious tasks, freeing up time for journalists to spend on more creative and investigative endeavors. However, this automation has raised some important issues such as the amount that humans are willing to trust the technology and how much of the journalistic process they are willing to automate. Artificial Intelligence has taken newsrooms by storm, allowing journalists to spend more time on investigative and creative work, however it is extremely important that newsrooms implement boundaries regarding their use of the technology in order to maintain their integrity. 

Within the newsroom, AI has taken over tasks such as combing through data and summarizing documents. Traditionally, journalists would have to spend a significant amount of time performing these tasks themselves, taking their attention away from more notable work. With the integration of AI into newsrooms, journalists can focus on tasks that require human skills in order to be successful such as performing investigations and conducting real world reporting. Some key uses of AI described in JournalismAI’s report titled Generating Change are Optical character recognition (OCR), Speech-to-Text, and Text Extraction. These tools automate transcription, extract text from images, and structure data after gathering. These are the kinds of tools that are making positive changes in newsrooms around the world. One example of this type of tool is The Sun newsroom’s News Assist. This program enables journalists to structure complex data sets, for example a 2024 birthday honors list, that they can then use for the basis of an original article. This program saves journalists a significant amount of time as they no longer have to manually search through entire 500 word lists, and instead they can focus on how to use the information discovered by the AI in an article. Another important use of The Sun’s News Assist is transcription which provides accurate scripts and summaries. This is an element of the program made to help journalists digest information quicker in order to spend the maximum amount of time on the human elements of reporting. Taking the use of AI in journalism one step further, Reuters’ News Tracer does more than just scan data. This technology utilizes machine learning algorithms to identify breaking news stories and quickly check their credibility. This program aids journalists by sifting through massive amounts of data, social media posts, and eyewitness reports to highlight the most reliable and captivating breaking news stories. The technology implemented in this program is taking the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in journalism to another level by allowing technology to choose which stories journalists should focus their energy on. These two programs demonstrate the impressive capabilities of AI in journalism and just how much of the process can be automated. Both The Sun’s News Assist and Reutuers’ News Tracer are revolutionary AI instruments available to journalists which can help them automate tedious tasks and allow them to spend time on more human reporting. 

The use of Artificial Intelligence in newsrooms has created some significant concerns regarding technology dependency and the automation of too large of a portion of reporting. An anonymous contributor featured in Generating Change pointed these issues out in the quote, “The adoption of AI in journalism raises potential concerns related to bias, editorial independence, transparency, verification, data ethics, and human judgment.” By trusting AI to comb through information, reporters are opening themselves up to risks such as inaccuracy in the technology’s results. Furthermore, newsrooms are exposing themselves to significant threats to the structure of their business model. Because reporters are relying on AI to generate summaries and point out interesting stories or topics, they are allowing these programs to decide what stories to investigate. This is a serious issue as part of what makes a great journalist is their judgment and ability to choose what is worth investigating. This is a large reason humans need to remain involved in the news-gathering process. Looking back at Reuters’ News Tracer, it is imperative that this technology is used responsibly. Instead of relying entirely on the technology to highlight which stories the program believes are the most intriguing, reporters could use this technology to check the credibility of a story, or gather inspiration from the technology’s suggestions to conduct their own research. However, journalists must not allow the technology to guide their direction without human input and judgment. In order to maintain their journalistic integrity, reporters need to perform investigations themselves and choose their own topics to write about so that AI does not take over the entire idea and creativity of a journalist's reporting. Artificial Intelligence does not have curiosity, a sense of injustice, or emotions, therefore it cannot possibly replace human investigations. Humans are an integral part of uncovering elements of a story which would not otherwise be detected by AI and therefore must not be replaced by advanced technology. 

Another prominent concern regarding Artificial Intelligence are issues surrounding managerial tasks. If editorial tasks are automated, this leaves too much power in the hands of technology and opens up newsrooms to significant risk. Generating Change articulated this importance with a quote from an anonymous contributor, “No matter how advanced AI becomes, human criteria will always be essential in the whole fact-checking process.” Human’s need to verify content and be the last step before publishing as this ensures that there won’t be any technological mishaps that make it onto the official publication. Furthermore, in order to avoid the issue of restructuring entire business models and maintaining the reliability of their brand, newsrooms need to keep editorial tasks human so that small or large errors do not tarnish the reputation of their publication. These risks must be considered and addressed by newsrooms as the integration of AI into journalism comes with many challenges that can prove to be detrimental if not handled responsibly.

Looking towards the future, in order for journalism to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence and not succumb to the issues the technology creates, the industry must focus on creating original quality journalism that is not reliant on AI. Nadine Forshaw, assistant head of audience at The Sun, believes that AI should be an assisting technology that streamlines labor intensive tasks, but not one that takes over the creative direction of a publication. This idea is well articulated and supports the concept of implementing Artificial Intelligence in a way that increases the amount of human reporting, not in a manner that replaces it. Furthermore, it is essential that newsrooms remain transparent with their implementation of AI and make sure the journalists understand how the technology works to avoid the programs in guiding them blindly. This comes from building relationships with tech companies if the program’s are being outsourced. If the technology is being created in house, publications must make sure their tech teams and their journalists are connected. In order to succeed, AI’s integration into newsrooms must be in efficient and creative ways, as demonstrated by The Sun and Reuters. Additionally, this AI must support the values of a publication's human journalism. If a company keeps quality top of mind, then they can ensure that their paper’s identity at its core does not change by creating boundaries regarding the amount of AI used by journalists. A contributor to Generating Change stated, “The constant and mandatory intervention of the human factor in [AI] integration is necessary.” This quote summarizes the role of AI in papers and supports the importance of the ‘human in the loop’ technique when it comes to integrating technology into the journalism industry. The future of AI in journalism is bright, however newsrooms must take careful steps to ensure that they do not lose their identity as a human based publication by harnessing AI to contribute to, rather than replace, human reporting.

Artificial Intelligence has radically changed the efficiency of producing an article by shortening the news-gathering process. AI can now scan through data sets, summarize information, and point out popular breaking news topics. However, it is imperative that AI is used responsibly in newsrooms. In order to avoid becoming technology dependent, companies must use AI as a tool which frees up time for increased investigative and creative work, not as a program to replace human reporting. If newsrooms integrate AI responsibly and create boundaries within their companies, the result is something rather unexpected. More technology results in more human reporting. This simple but powerful idea should be the driving concept behind all integration of AI in newsrooms, and will lead to many exciting opportunities for journalists in the future.