The Power of AI in Journalism: Enhancing Efficiency and Quality

Workers in the media industry can use artificial intelligence to create images, illustrations, and infographics for news stories. These tools help the design process, which usually requires time and expertise, and can produce relevant visuals by inputting text or data or us the Power of AI in Journalism .

How AI can help journalists work better and stay trusted .

AI isn’t going to take over the special job that human journalists do. But it’s clear that AI can be a big help in news teams, making work faster without messing up the trust in the news. It’s common knowledge that journalists have a lot to do, from covering the latest news to deep research. People want good news fast, more than ever before.

Since ChatGPT took off, more businesses have seen its value in using AI. AI can streamline everyday tasks and boost creative efforts, which is a big plus for journalists and the media industry. This trend has been amplified with the rollout of other AI tools besides ChatGPT. These tools can speed up a lot of manual work, making things more efficient without cutting corners on trustworthiness.

Here’s a look at how AI tools can make journalists quicker and keep their work solid ( Power of AI in Journalism)

Brainstorm and produce bulk of topic ideation.

Journalists often face challenges in coming up with new story ideas. AI tools have the capability to sift through news trends, social media discussions, and public data sets to spot emerging topics and potential story leads .This process can serve as a crucial initial step for brainstorming and further investigation. Another approach is to select a main keyword related to the desired coverage area and then use AI to generate ideas centered around it.

Additionally, AI can identify the most common FAQs on a topic, providing a foundation for understanding audience perspectives and crafting stories that resonate. Some tools that support these functions include ChatGPT for content creation, along with Gemini, Jasper, Portent, and Frase.

Headline generator

Creating the right headline is key to attracting readers to an article. AI tools excel in offering many headline options, whether you’re looking for something direct or a headline with catchy jargon. These tools allow for a broad selection to refine your article’s draft. To get headlines that fit specific needs, journalists can guide AI tools with particular instructions. For instance, asking for headlines that start by addressing a problem the readers might face, then suggesting a solution.

Furthermore, these AI tools can help by generating SEO-friendly titles or meta descriptions, helping to create titles that fit within desired character counts efficiently. Some of the tools available for these purposes include Jasper, ChatGPT for content creation, Ahrefs AI Title Generator, HubSpot Free AI Headline Generator, and Semrush Free Title Generator: Powered by AI.

Knowledge base with AI

Large corporations such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are interested in the archives of media organisation to use such data to train their Large Language Models. While allowing access to their archives may be of benefit for media organisation, many are having issues with allowing free access to their archives.

Mediahuis is exploring potential solutions to this by collaborating with ML6 to utilise Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques to create an internal knowledge base at a fraction of the cost that training a full LLM would require. This technique may be particularly beneficial for Mediahuis to maintain the integrity and accuracy of its content while driving innovation in AI-driven journalism.

Mediahuis is in dialogue with tech giants like Microsoft, ML6, and Google to explore models where their data can be used to train LLMs, leading to the development of more domain-specific language models. Such collaborations can pave the way for a new era of AI-driven journalism, where compromises between media organizations and tech companies leads to the continual improvement of AI technologies in this domain.

Generate news quizzes

The 2023 Reuters Digital News Report highlights the appeal of games, including news quizzes, with 25% of subscribers to newspapers in the U.S. citing them as a reason to purchase a subscription. Several news organisation are trying to pick up on this trend. Several news organisation have seen potential in such a solution and have started developing automatically generated news quizzes based on existing articles. TIME ran a series of experiments, utilising Chat GPT to mine its archive of 200 million words of iconic stories to gauge current affairs knowledge for quiz content. This AI integration combines engagement and education, encouraging readers to pay more attention while reading news.

However, this approach cannot be completely automated as AI is still subject to a phenomenon known as “hallucination”, where AI mixes accurate and misleading information in a way that is difficult to detect. To achieve accurate results, precise prompting and having a human oversee the process is critical.

The bottom line

Don’t fear AI; embrace it as a partner.  While AI won’t replace the human touch in journalism – the critical thinking, insightful analysis, and captivating storytelling – it can be a powerful asset. AI tools can automate repetitive tasks like research, fact-checking, and data analysis. This frees journalists to focus on the core tasks: investigating, writing, and telling impactful stories. With these AI helpers, journalists can work faster and deliver high-quality content that keeps the public informed.

So, explore the possibilities or Power of AI in Journalism– you might be surprised at how it can boost your journalism.