‘…the danger is that once again, journalism will be left chasing after the change instead of meeting the challenge.’
AI is touching journalism in several ways, from gathering through distribution, and bigger changes are ahead, writes LSE professor Charlie Beckett. He’s canvassed 70 practitioners around the world about AI and journalism, researching the ‘state of play and state of mind’ in a sweeping study by POLIS, the journalism think-tank he heads at LSE. It’s supported by the Google News Initiative.
The full report is due in mid-November. This piece reads like a preview of at least some of the themes to come:
- Positives: Individual ingenuity and possibilities for beneficial effects
- Potential obstacles: New investment needed, old aversions to change, the need for less complex tools and, generally, more knowledge of the area
- Cautions: Journalism commands only a fraction of AI activity and needs to work that much harder to keep up
AI: time to crack on
IN PUBLISHING | September 24, 2019 | by Charlie Beckett