Kacha baadaam, kacha baadaam! Simultaneous access of high end camera and good internet connectivity through smartphones is becoming ubiquitous. This has made everyone a content producer with access to whole wide world. Citizen journalism is around the corner. Coupled with advents of machines as personal assistants and smart writers, what is going to be fate of a journalism student?
While treatment of news seems rather facile, authenticity of facts, figures, sources and maintaining a responsible view in writing require much more maturity, given the importance of sending a balanced message and accounts to the readers. The latter part is the area which requires greater human intervention, whereas tech-based solutions and tools can now takeover the other steps involved in the process of news production – information gathering, composition, analysis, compilation, adding backgrounder & follow-ups etc.
The process starts with gathering information through various sources and channels, a tedious task where newsrooms are required to find the best pieces from a sea of copies and remove the redundant. This can be easily done now using some simple AI tools and bots which reduce human intervention to great lengths. Such an inheritance is but prone to acquiring undesired bits too, which may lead to inclusion of misinformation and biased opinions/content. This scourge of fake news and misinformation can be dealt with through blockchain technology by using its ability to establish the origin of a story or fact.
AI is helping journalists and media persons in transcribing Audio and Video Interviews allowing them to spend their time on deriving insights instead. It is feasible now to examine large databases and even send alerts as soon as a trend or anomaly emerges from big data. It can provide content producers and publisher’s tools to identify fake news and lessen their impact on their readership. AI can even assist in lessening the subjective interpretation of the data as its machine learning (ML) algorithms are trained to consider accuracy. The bigger picture leads to far greater realities where AI & ML can make automated Newsrooms, publishing and Robotics, etc. possible.
The best use of AI and machine learning in media could be its assistance in direct news operations too, like primary preparation of long-form articles, in-depth analyses and addition of story backgrounders & timelines etc. Once an AI-based draft is ready, simple corrections and basic copy-editing can help media houses produce volumes of news copies. AI-written articles are currently limited to simple and formulaic topics including stock market results, sports game scores, etc. British daily newspaper ‘The Guardian’ has already started using AI & ML tools to produce machine-written articles.
The time and money being saved from such a technological assistance needs to be spent on performing a much more responsible and qualitative journalism, something that the world seems to be missing out on. This can provide journalists and media firms much more flexibility and scope to be in touch with ground reality and at the same time, also be able to see and gather content with added accountability and cut through various layers of misinformation that may be added to the content and suggestions. If used properly by trained journalists, AI can revolutionise the way the Indian Media struggles for covering the entire country, which is so densely populated, has so many languages, religions, so many ministries, legal issues, a nation which brims with vast political happenings on a daily-basis.
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