Public trust in journalism will require clear disclosure when newsrooms use text-generating AI tools like GPT-3. At first, outlets that use AI tools will be seen by the public as a binary: Either this is a publication that publishes AI-generated news articles, or it isn’t. We’ll also see a debate on which topics make the use of AI tools unacceptable for reporting, versus those where an AI tool might be the best first source for rapid coverage.
These debates exist within certain beats already, but the evolving sophistication of how the public understands issues like media manipulation will eventually inspire demand for transparency in who or what wrote the news.
New safeguards and content moderation practices will be developed to account for the vulnerabilities and terrifying abusability of AI text generators. Editorial practices will evolve to weigh human contributions against that of an AI system, balancing issues such as accuracy, speed, reliability, data sources, and name brand. And after an “AI-content-bad/human-content-good” morality play, those newsrooms resourced to explore these complex tools will recognize and begin to adapt to their pitfalls and tradeoffs.
Newsroom leadership will particularly need to rapidly learn how AI is integrated with human creativity, labor, and existing norms, a set of practices known as “repairing innovation.”
We may see a kind of simple report card or badging system on news articles indicating the degree or role that AI and humans played in creation. Crucially, both newsrooms and news consumers will come to understand an “accountability shorthand” around the use of AI text generators, a new layer in the formulation of trust — or distrust — in media by the general public that, over time, newsrooms will be obligated to communicate to their readers.
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds are executive director and director of creative strategy, respectively, of Data & Society.
Public trust in journalism will require clear disclosure when newsrooms use text-generating AI tools like GPT-3. At first, outlets that use AI tools will be seen by the public as a binary: Either this is a publication that publishes AI-generated news articles, or it isn’t. We’ll also see a debate on which topics make the use of AI tools unacceptable for reporting, versus those where an AI tool might be the best first source for rapid coverage.
These debates exist within certain beats already, but the evolving sophistication of how the public understands issues like media manipulation will eventually inspire demand for transparency in who or what wrote the news.
New safeguards and content moderation practices will be developed to account for the vulnerabilities and terrifying abusability of AI text generators. Editorial practices will evolve to weigh human contributions against that of an AI system, balancing issues such as accuracy, speed, reliability, data sources, and name brand. And after an “AI-content-bad/human-content-good” morality play, those newsrooms resourced to explore these complex tools will recognize and begin to adapt to their pitfalls and tradeoffs.
Newsroom leadership will particularly need to rapidly learn how AI is integrated with human creativity, labor, and existing norms, a set of practices known as “repairing innovation.”
We may see a kind of simple report card or badging system on news articles indicating the degree or role that AI and humans played in creation. Crucially, both newsrooms and news consumers will come to understand an “accountability shorthand” around the use of AI text generators, a new layer in the formulation of trust — or distrust — in media by the general public that, over time, newsrooms will be obligated to communicate to their readers.
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds are executive director and director of creative strategy, respectively, of Data & Society.
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
An Xiao Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage