Written by Clara Snyder | Reporter
As someone deeply rooted in the world of journalism, both personally and academically, I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about the future of journalism and the challenges that lie within. Whenever he is asked about this topic, two issues seem to dominate the conversation: news bias and artificial intelligence.
Discussions about news bias are commonplace when interacting with people about journalism, which is surprising since polls show that public trust in the media is at historically low levels. That's not the point.
My main problem with this topic is the idea that the news bias that exists today is unprecedented, and that journalism was once completely free of bias. That's not true.
There are many examples of partisan journalism in the past, particularly in the 19th century, where most newspapers were directly linked to a particular political party depending on the financial interests of their publishers.
The idea of objective journalism is actually more recent than many believe. It wasn't until his 1920s that objectivity began to emerge as a standard, when newspaper companies were forced to merge as they closed down, and each paper began to adopt objectivity in order to appeal to a wider audience. We are now hiring.
Another problem I see with this topic is the idea that news bias makes consuming journalism a wasted effort. When we fail to inform ourselves based on dissatisfaction with those who are supposed to inform us, we retreat from critical thinking as a culture.
In some sense, the idea of objectivity is considered impossible. Human beings inherently have opinions that influence their daily decisions. When it comes to choosing which sources to interview for an article, choosing to interview the person who knows the most about a particular topic is not objective in itself.
Hunter S. Thompson describes objective journalism well in his book titled Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, in which he describes the term “objective journalism” as an arrogant contradiction in terms. called.
“What can I say? Objective journalism is hard to come by these days. We all aspire to it, but who can show us the way? … Box scores, race results There is no such thing as objective journalism, with exceptions such as stock market aggregation.
A common sentiment I hear about AI is that it will eliminate the need for journalists and dismantle the entire practice of journalism. I also disagree with that opinion.
AI does not threaten journalists' jobs. I believe this will actually be an asset to the future of the practice and help address issues of public mistrust and apathy toward traditional news organizations.
Reporting and breaking news remains a uniquely human role that AI cannot perform. But Charlie Beckett, director of the Journalism AI Research Project at the London School of Economics, argued that AI could be used to streamline processes.
“AI will not completely automate content creation from start to finish. It will give professionals and creative people the tools to work faster and do more of what humans do best. It's an expansion that allows us to spend more time,” Beckett said in a Reuters Institute article.
Additionally, AI could help restore public trust in the media by creating an end product that sifts through the vast amount of information available to readers and distinguishes between facts.
As journalism embraces AI as a tool and incorporates this technology into its future practices, media outlets may begin to publish stories that reassert themselves as trusted sources of information. Harnessing the power of AI to produce journalism also has the potential to separate these news organizations from social media, which is an increasingly popular medium for consumers to get their news.
I think the biggest reason why social media is replacing traditional media as the preferred means of consuming news is that journalism lacks connection with the public.
Social media strives to connect with the public through the use of algorithms that tailor information to directly match consumer desires. Why look beyond social media when you already have a product hand-picked to suit your personal tastes?
In this age of technology, where users have access to vast amounts of information at any given time, gaining the trust of readers is increasingly dependent on personal emotion.
Perhaps by setting aside the notion of complete objectivity and instead focusing on creating stories that appeal to individuals while enriching information with evidence and cross-referenced truths, modern media could reposition itself as a trusted news organization.
Beckett sums this up nicely in a blog post titled “Journalism's New Mission: Understanding Humanity.”
“Journalists have to get on board with the flow of postmodern humanity. They need to be more professional, but they also need to be more empathetic. [Journalism] All traditional virtues and techniques must not be abandoned, but reinvention must be purely technical. News organizations need to rediscover their interest in understanding people. ”