With artificial intelligence being on the rise, it’s changing the way many media industries work, including journalism. For students studying journalism, understanding how AI is reshaping the news industry is essential.
AI is becoming an influence on how news is created and consumed. While AI won't replace journalists entirely, it will push journalists to adapt their skills and focus on high-level tasks like context, interpretation and critical analysis.
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The future will likely see a hybrid approach, where AI assists journalists in various stages of the news process, from research and writing to distribution and personalisation. It’s a powerful tool but not a replacement.
With the rise of digital media, especially social media, traditional newspapers are decreasing. More people are getting their news on their phones or computers. According to The Media Angel, newspaper spending dropped by more than 10% between 2022 and 2023. Even more shocking, newspaper revenue fell from over £9.9 billion in 2005 to under £2 billion in 2022.
But journalism isn’t dying, it’s changing. Human journalists are still essential. Only a real person can conduct real interviews, capture emotions and bring a unique voice to a story, especially stories that haven’t been told yet.
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With AI many benefits include pitching ideas, increased efficiency, automated fact-checking, personalisation, data analysis, content creation, language translation, predictive analysis and more. AI is an assistant that can help journalists work faster and smarter. It can even suggest angles or headlines to help an article gain high engagement.
However, AI should be used as a support not as a takeover. AI can never have the same originality as a human voice. While AI may not completely replace human journalists, it will undoubtedly play an increasingly important role in the future of journalism.
On the downside, there have been some disadvantages with the use of AI that include, biased reporting, lack of creativity, ethical concerns, lack of empathy, can't conduct an interview or share a personal experience. AI also is not always accurate so it shouldn't be trusted 100% of the time.
In fact, there have been several cases of AI spreading misinformation like fake videos of celebrities, AI-generated photos like Mark Zuckerberg on the fashion runway and deepfake audio clips of people saying things they never said. These tools can be misused to create content that looks real but is fake. Journalists must be aware of the risks with AI when pitching a story and researching the facts.
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Moreover, AI is a great tool for journalism with enhanced stories with an improvement of accuracy, ideas and efficiency. The future of journalism is not dying, instead it is growing and journalist will have to adapt to new ways of how the newsroom is run.
