The future of journalism lies in “robots?

Undeniably the technology industry is changing the way news is created through artificial intelligence software. However, algorithms and robots are the future of journalism?

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How would you feel if you read the news as read by artificial intelligence? Since 2012, this happens more often. Large newsrooms began applying algorithms, programming them in a number of projects to introduce automatically written news.

However, what exactly is automatic journalism? According to Matt Carlson, author of “Robot Reporter,” it is the algorithmic process of transforming data into narrative messages without human intervention.

With the advancement of big data and algorithms, it is only a matter of time before the press becomes the next destination of technology. How to produce and distribute news changes is inevitable. Prestigious news agencies such as the AP quickly realized this and from 2014 began using Automated Insights, a robot platform capable of transferring data from reports to news.

AP is not alone. LA Times also uses robots to collect information about Los Angeles city crime. Site dedicated to it is called “Homicide Report”. This reporter robot included in his news data such as the gender, race of the victim, cause of death, related police, neighbors, five deaths.

Some publications such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Forbes test automated writing tools provided by Narrative Science. Co-founder of startup Kristian Hammond once said that in the next 15 years, more than 90% of news will be written by computers.

Innovation is an important factor in communication. We live in a world of dizzying movement, consuming dozens of information every day. The truth is undeniable that readers target general news instead of in-depth articles. If the algorithm can mass produce “instant” news, is the quality of the press going down, readers familiar with the robot-made journalism? Will the days of in-depth reporting and investigative journalism end?

So far, only repetitive and conventional articles (earthquake reports, sporting events, financial news) produced by robots are actually easier to put into data than simulated. questioning and expressing opinions.

So, many other questions arise: Is the content created by the software reliable, meaningful or in-depth? Can the algorithm simulate the art of investigative journalism? Does the automatic writing software put an end to reporters? In critical moments, the press must have the power to adapt to the new digital environment.

In addition, with the spread of fake news and Facebook becoming a news distribution, newspaper sites not only lost readers, advertising revenue but also public trust. How can they recover?

The robot press can now be a solution. The premise of robot journalism is quite simple, is an opportunity for human journalists to focus more on quality content, far more than pure repetitive news. Finally, they are freed from the pressure to write mechanical stories.

The press automatically opens up new opportunities for newsrooms, it can replace or support some basic skills such as spelling, speed, and production cost reduction. It also helps broaden the scope of coverage because it allows news agencies to collect and analyze large amounts of data.

However, these advances affect the role of reporters and their careers. As Kim Daewon and Kim Seongcheol pointed out in the study of “The attitude of journalists for robot journalism”, journalists and authors report that the automatic writing software will replace them at the editorial office.

The bigger problem with automated news is that some elements cannot be programmed. News produced by machines takes data from many independent streams, which can be biased. If more information is produced automatically in the future, the algorithm can reinforce people’s views by producing only news that is relevant to the market or based on the previous set of data.

Journalists believe that production news automatically lacks the context, depth, complexity and creativity of traditional media. Van Dalen argued in the article “The algorithm behind the headlines”, part of journalism art, the ability to write complex sentences in terms of language. That skill shapes journalism more than truth, objectivity, simplicity and speed.

Robot journalism is an opportunity for the press to become more humanistic because of its contribution to strengthening the competitiveness of the media. It allows for faster, more accurate content production, attracts many types of consumption and new news distribution. Artificial intelligence will play a big role in producing news in the future but we must be careful and wise to use it, develop it instead of looking at it and denying it.

Karl Marx once said, “machines built by technical advances will replace people at work.” It is unclear how long until one day all the news we read below will have the words “This story is written by robots”.

Even if the technology is not sophisticated enough and limited, perhaps the day when the journalism software plays a central role in the press and becomes part of our newspaper reading habits will not be far away.

Source : Cafebiz