AI and transparency | Online News Association
Today’s class was really interesting as we focused most of the time on watching a previous class discussion on the impacts and importance of AI in journalism. Before this JOU 45000 Multimedia Journalism class, I had not spent much time considering the implications of Artificial Intelligence in the newsroom environment. What I appreciated about the lecture was that instead of focusing on the drawbacks of Artificial Intelligence, the discussion was centered on the ethical and practical ways one can utilize these tools to enhance one’s journalism. For example, AI platforms such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude can generate ideas to help inspire your work. Needing help deciding what questions to ask your interviewees, AI can assist you with prompts and ideas of what direction you may want to take your work in. Needless to say, journalists mustn’t rely solely on AI to write their stories. Many platforms are still struggling to find the correct information. In the discussion, we witnessed how if you asked ChatGPT to write a story about the recent Mayoral race in Chicago, Illinois, it inserted incorrect names and false information that, if unchecked, could damage the reputation of a journalist or newsroom that carelessly decided to run that story as told by AI.
AI should not be a crutch but a toolbox of limitless possibilities when conceptualizing and publishing essential pieces of journalism. Additionally, platforms such as Sora can offer visuals to complement pieces of work. However, advancements are still being made to offer more realistic depictions of people, places, and things instead of the current renditions coming off as cartoonish. Speaking of photojournalism, the lecturer informed us that it would be unethical for a photojournalist to ask AI to recreate a scene if there was no accompanying photo from the story. As journalists, we have a responsibility and a moral obligation to be honest and truthful in our reporting. If we publish entire articles or photographs made by AI, it will leave our audiences with less trust in the media in an environment where many people choose other ways of receiving their news.
In summary, today’s discussion was very helpful in informing me of the various platforms and applications that use AI. I discovered how I could use said platforms to enhance my work as a journalist. Following spring break, the five of us will be working on creating an investigative journalism piece for the final major project of the semester. I am curious about how what we learned today could be infused into the future of journalism and this upcoming assignment.


















