Navigating AI’s role in journalism
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues its rapid evolution, journalism students at the University of Texas at Austin find themselves at the crossroads of tradition and innovation. Determining how both humans and machines can work together to report and analyze current events is crucial. Does artificial intelligence have a place in a field so formerly reliant on human intervention?
UT’s Robert Quigley, Associate Professor of Practice and the journalism school’s Innovation Director, used his scholarly focus on digital media to evaluate the future of the field: “I think the news media industry faces a major challenge as artificial intelligence evolves and expands. Smart journalists will figure out how to use AI as a tool to free them up to tell more meaningful stories.” Quigley views AI not as a threat, but as a valuable tool empowering journalists to delve deeper into the narratives that matter.
Although the integration of AI as an ally offers exciting possibilities for streamlining research, fact-checking, and data analysis, the human aspect of journalism is irreplicable. In Nicholas Diakopo’s 2019 article on hybridization, he highlighted that, “... human journalists will still have a lot to add when it comes to complex communication, expert thinking, and ethical judgment—essential elements at the core of journalism that will resist the application of algorithms.”
In Bill Kovach and Tom Rostenstiel’s The Journalism of Verification, originality is regarded as one of the key tenets of objective journalism. The use of artificial intelligence in journalism may contradict the reliance on original reporting skills that lie at the heart of true journalism.
Students at the University of Texas at Austin are acutely aware of the imperative to wield AI as a tool for empowerment rather than a potential pitfall. The future of journalism, as envisioned by these students, is one where technological advancements amplify, rather than overshadow, the art of storytelling.
Note: This story was constructed with the assistance of ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI.
