In order to maintain a sense of transparency and abide by ethical practices, the development of guidelines and policies regarding the use of AI technology within journalism is vital.
The Increasing Prevalence of AI
AI integration has increased across a number of industries and sectors, including journalism. In fact, AI tools have a number of applications within the journalism sector, where speed and diverse content can mark the difference between success and failure.
Journalism is no stranger to resource limitations, and as such, AI technology is already supporting a variety of functions including automating the production of news articles using structured data.
However, the increasing use of AI has also raised a number of editorial and ethical concerns, which cannot be ignored particularly at a time when general trust in the media has fallen. Research published by the Reuters Institute has found that audiences tend to have less trust in news that has been labelled as being created by AI, which is something that journalists and news organisations must keep in mind.
AI and Regulation
In 2023, a number of organisations published a charter which defines the principles for preserving the integrity of journalism in today’s modern world. These principles include ensuring that ethics must play a governing role within media’s technological choices, the media must help people to confidently identify synthetic and authentic content, and that the media is required to defend journalism when communicating with technology companies.
The Future of AI and Journalism
Moving forward, journalism courses like those offered by the School of Journalism will have a key role to play in ensuring the journalists of the future are well-versed in how to use AI responsibly and ethically.
Continued research will also be required as AI technologies become more advanced, with generative AI tools looking poised to be able to provide increasing ways to streamline the production of news. AI will play a role in journalism moving forward, which only increases the need for the development of effective policies and specific definitions to protect the integrity of journalism into the future.
