AI and Journalism: Transforming an Industry

(Based on the Article: Ai Powered Editorial Systems & Organizational Changes)

D.Arets, M. Brugmana,

                Everyone has been talking about artificial intelligence (AI) for a long time. Many people are sick of the conversations, but they will continue to happen since the tech isn’t going away. Some industries are already embracing the change, adopting AI in some of their workflows to test the waters. One of these industries is journalism, which has trepidatiously started using AI in its editorial systems.

                Editorial systems are any system that equips editors with toolkits for sorting information, helping with information flow, preventing parallel work, and managing resources, among other tasks. It’s easy to see where AI can help with these areas. AI can improve these workflows while helping to enhance the writing process, creating multidimensional stories that create a timeline and context for the reported events.

                Although these changes are being embraced, they are being implemented slowly and cautiously. This is because journalists don’t want to deal with an overreliance on AI. In a study done by the Fonty University of Applied Sciences, in conjunction with Dutch regional news outlet, Omroep Flevoland, both journalists and students were asked to design their ideal newsroom keeping AI in mind. All of them emphasized the importance of human collaboration with people from various disciplines.

                Much like the pandemic, the advent of AI has introduced new hybrid work opportunities. Rather than splitting time between the office and home, journalists can now work in tandem with technology to write stories faster and more comprehensively. AI is here to stay, and people will have to get used to it, even if the conversations around it become tedious. Industries that embrace this tech can also embrace the positive changes that go with it while also avoiding the negative changes that lurk in the back of everyone’s minds.