The integration of AI into newsrooms is revolutionizing journalism, says Canadian podcaster and educator Nikita Roy, who led an opening “Generative AI 101” workshop at the May 30 Journalism & Artificial Intelligence roundtable in Toronto.
She said AI is allowing many journalistic tasks to be done faster, easier, with greater efficiency and greater impact. The Newsroom Robots host offered attendees a list of 20 ways AI can enhance newsroom operations.
- Writing SEO headlines – YESEO
More than 400 local newsrooms use YESEO to test headlines and collect search engine optimization (SEO) data on what their readers want to see. This ensures that news organizations craft headlines based on what will get them the most clicks and engagement.
- Summarizing information from PDFs – ChatGPT Plus
Journalists can upload PDFs to ChatGPT Plus and other AI tools and chat with it. This way, the bot can be asked questions, and it will answer based on the information provided. Roy emphasizes the need to fact-check information received, but the process helps to rapidly search through documents for research purposes.
- Creating charts to visualize data – using ChatGPT plugin diagr.am
Using data to create interactive graphs is another AI tool that can save time. Instead of using Microsoft Excel and working on formatting, information can be shared with ChatGPT and it will create an interactive chart that you can embed or copy-and-paste into your work.
- Using ChatGPT to analyze large data sets
Roy says this is one of her favourite tools as it allows sifting of large data sets and includes ChatGPT helping to figure out what the data is saying. A journalist can determine trends and anomalies much faster using AI.
- Asking data questions in plain language – ChatGPT
Using large data sets, a journalist can ask AI complex questions in plain language and receive comprehensive answers, making data analysis more efficient and less time-consuming.
- Chatting with YouTube videos – Google Gemini
If you need to quickly get updates from YouTube, whether you are watching a press conference or researching someone who has a lot of videos published, you can insert the link and chat with the material. You can also get AI to summarize and find the most important points.
- Translate articles – ChatGPT
ChatGPT supports translation in 95 languages. Many newsrooms use AI to get the first translation, and then they have someone work on the final translation to make sure it’s correct.
- Brainstorm interview questions – ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a brainstorming tool, and journalists can use it to help compose questions for an interview. It can also help if you have a harder interview to conduct; AI can help ensure a reporter’s questions follow the guidelines for trauma-informed reporting.
- Writing alt text – ChatGPT
AI can assist in writing descriptive and accurate alt text for images, ensuring that content is accessible to all readers, including those using screen readers because of a visual impairment.
- Analyzing images and getting feedback – ChatGPT
You can get feedback on your images to see how they can be modified to be more marketable to Gen Z or Millennials.
- Extracting data from an image – ChatGPT (Microsoft copilot)
Journalists can use ChatGPT with Microsoft Copilot to extract and interpret data from graphs and other images, making it easier to incorporate detailed analysis into articles.
- Using ChatGPT with customized bot
Roy has used this tool to create a custom bot for her podcasts so people can chat with the transcript, ask questions and get summaries of the episodes. ChatGPT allows newsrooms to build customized bots tailored to specific needs. For example, a lot of newsrooms are working on creating one for their style guides.
- Getting help with ad sales pitches – Microsoft copilot, Google Gemini or ChatGPT plus
This can be used to help create a customized email pitch to send to businesses.
- Getting help scraping information from sites – Microsoft copilot, Google Gemini or ChatGPT plus
These AI tools automate the process of scraping information from websites and help journalists gather the data they need quickly and accurately.
- Doing a pre-mortem analysis before starting a project – ChatGPT
Before starting a project, AI can conduct a pre-mortem analysis to predict potential pitfalls and suggest strategies, increasing the chances of project success.
- Transcribing interviews – Otter.ai
Many journalists have been using Otter.ai, an AI tool that helps to transcribe interviews so the laborious task doesn’t need to be done by hand. A huge time-saver.
- Voicing your ideas, and letting AI transform them into articulate text – Oasis
Oasis can transform all of your “word vomit” into articulate text. This allows journalists to record themselves speaking and then having that changed into a written format of their choice.
- AI chat-based search engine – Perplexity
While you can’t use ChatGPT as a search engine, Perplexity is connected to the Internet. “This is my actually default search engine that I go to and then go on to other sources,” said Roy. You can ask it a question about a topic, and it answers the questions — and even comes up with follow-up questions. It also cites its sources so you can fact-check the information source AI tapped for its answer.
- Converting news articles to videos – Nota
Nota can transform written news articles into engaging videos, ranging from 5 seconds to 3 minutes, tailored for different platforms and audience preferences. This is perfect for taking an article and create a reel for social media.
- Repurposing long videos to short – Opus
Opus Clip helps repurpose long videos into multiple short clips, making it easier to distribute content across various platforms and reach a wider audience.
Roy had a few final thoughts. While AI can help enhance a journalist’s work, it is not always needed. Sometimes, it is more efficient for reporters to do work as they normally would, and there are other times when AI can help.
“I would always say, don’t use it just for the sake of using it,” said Roy. “There’s always a need and a purpose that you’re trying to meet.”