The following is the text for students and teachers of journalism:
Newspaper
and news agency journalists are upset as they received the BBC news that the Microsoft
has planned to replace dozens of its contract journalists on its MSN website
and use automated systems to select news stories (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52860247?intlink_from_url=&link_location=live-reporting-story,
dated May 30, 2020).
Microsoft 'to replace journalists with robots'
This
has hit the English language journalists hard. It is because the story has
appeared on the backdrop of the reports that publishers in the USA and Europe have been
sacking journalists due to the plummeting advertising revenue since the
beginning of the 21st century.
Concerns in India
The situation was slightly better for journalists in India until recently. It is changing fast with the onset of Corona 19 since March 2020. A month later, some newspaper managements have shrunk their bureaus. Suddenly the publishers have shut down loss-making units. Some have retrenched their journalists and non-journalist staff because of the recession. The reaction among the horrified journalists was ‘it is a bloodbath.’ Some owners have offered to retain the journalists if these employees agreed to a pay cut of up to 50 per cent. Most employees have no option.
The situation was slightly better for journalists in India until recently. It is changing fast with the onset of Corona 19 since March 2020. A month later, some newspaper managements have shrunk their bureaus. Suddenly the publishers have shut down loss-making units. Some have retrenched their journalists and non-journalist staff because of the recession. The reaction among the horrified journalists was ‘it is a bloodbath.’ Some owners have offered to retain the journalists if these employees agreed to a pay cut of up to 50 per cent. Most employees have no option.
The
curating of stories from news organisations and selection of headlines and
pictures for the MSN site is currently done by journalists. Artificial
intelligence will perform these news production tasks. Microsoft has said it
was part of an evaluation of its business.
Microsoft,
like some other tech companies, pays news organisations to use their content on
its website. However, it employs journalists to decide which stories to display
and how they are presented.
Around
50 contract news producers would lose their jobs at the end of June 2020, The
Seattle Times reported, but a team of full-time journalists would remain. ‘It's
demoralizing to think machines can replace us but there you go,’ one of those
facing redundancy told the newspaper.
Twenty-seven of those losing their jobs are
employed by the UK's PA Media, The Guardian reported. Microsoft is one of the many tech companies experimenting with forms
of so-called robot journalism to cut costs. Google is also investing in
projects to understand how it might work.
Not sudden, Not unexpected?
Not sudden, Not unexpected?
However, this development to deploy robots in news organisations is not sudden
and unexpected. Journalists in the West knew it was coming. The media has been
reporting the developments in bits and pieces over the past few years.
For
example the Associated
Press had struck a deal in 2014 with Automated Insights, a technology company,
This company specializes in Language Generation Software (NLG) that produces billions of
machine-generated stories a year. The NLG is
a software process that automatically transforms data into a written narrative. (https://automatedinsights.com/natural-language-generation/)
For years, journalists at the
Associated Press have had little time to focus on hard-hitting, journalistic
pieces, and instead spent many hours each quarter producing financial reports.
During that time, AP had the capacity to produce only 300 financial reports a
quarter, leaving thousands of potential company earnings reports unwritten.
In addition to
covering company earnings for Bloomberg, robot reporters have been prolific
producers of articles on minor league baseball for The Associated Press, high
school football for The Washington Post and earthquakes for The Los
Angeles Times.
Similar to the financial reporters,
sports journalists in the West were responsible for sorting through stacks of
box scores and games notes to write previews and recaps for college basketball
and Minor League Baseball games. Prior to the adoption of Automated Insights’
Wordsmith, journalists only had time to write about the top teams in each
league, and were unable to cover unranked match-ups.
Stanford and the University of Washington Study
A study
by researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington found that
Automated Insights’ technology has had a profound effect on the stock
marketing. As a result of the partnership between AP and Automated Insights,
hundreds of firms that received little attention from traders are now seeing
significantly more trading volume and liquidity. (https://automatedinsights.com/customer-stories/associated-press/)
As Jaclyn Peiser had reported on
Feb. 5, 2019, journalism
generated by machine was already on the rise. Roughly a third of the content
published by Bloomberg News uses some form of automated technology. The system
used by the company, Cyborg, is able to assist reporters in churning out
thousands of articles on company earnings reports each quarter.
Artificial intelligence news anchor
On
November 8, 2018, the world’s first ‘artificial intelligence news anchor’ was
launched in China. It was developed by Xinhua and Chinese search engine company
Sogou. The anchor was designed to simulate human voice, facial expressions and
gestures. (https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/media/china-xinhua-ai-anchor/index.html)
Have a look at the story on the first Female AI Chinese news anchor
The
Guardian’s Australia edition published its first machine-assisted article in February 2019, an account of annual political donations to the
country’s political parties. Forbes announced the same year that it was testing
a tool called Bertie to provide reporters with rough drafts and story
templates.
Approximately one-third of the
content from Bloomberg News leverages one form of automation or another. Thanks
to a system called Cyborg, the publisher’s reporters are able to produce
thousands of articles about company earnings each quarter.
With no need for breaks,
lightning-fast comprehension, and pinpoint precision, Cyborg can digest a
financial report and return a news story with the most relevant facts and
figures in a matter of minutes. It allows Bloomberg News to compete with rivals
such as Reuters in the fast-paced world of financial journalism.
The Ericsson Networked Society Lab document
The Ericsson Networked Society Lab, Stockholm,
Sweden, has brought out an important 24-page document that promises that software
will continue to supplement journalists and provide a helping hand for
media companies. They will work together to do a better job and maximize
limited resources by automating processes, carrying out routine work,
providing a presence across multiple locations, and conducting data
research – all while cutting costs and increasing profit margin for media
companies. (https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/networked-society-insights/future-of-journalism/the-rise-of-robot-journalism)
The Lab’s Report by Mikael Törnwall has come
out with Ten Predictions as listed here:
(https://www.ericsson.com/4a5427/assets/local/reports-papers/networked-society-insights/doc/the-future-of-journalism-in-a-networked-society_screen.pdf)
Ten Predictions
1. Faster changing landscape and smaller, more
agile media companies
2. A blurred line between journalist and
audience.
3. Print news is dead.
3. Print news is dead.
4. On-demand replaces linear TV
and radio
5. News becomes more and more
mobile
6. Even more personalized content
7. Interactivity, AR and VR as a
part of media
8. Smarter advertising formats
9. Journalism becomes a service
10. More journalists will be replaced by software.
9. Journalism becomes a service
10. More journalists will be replaced by software.
(www.ericsson.com)
Untiring and accurate, Cyborg helps Bloomberg in its race against Reuters, its main rival in the field of quick-twitch business financial journalism, as well as giving it a fighting chance against a more recent player in the information race, hedge funds, which use artificial intelligence to serve their clients fresh facts.
On
November 8, 2018, the world’s first ‘artificial intelligence news anchor’ was
launched in China. It was developed by Xinhua and Chinese search engine company
Sogou. The anchor was designed to simulate human voice, facial expressions and
gestures. (https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/media/china-xinhua-ai-anchor/index.html)
Background
Using
computers in place of hand composing to typeset the written text began in India
in late 1980s. It was followed by the use of desktop publishing, the internet,
and web technology after 1995. The media industry was quick to absorb the rapid
developments in the Information and communications
technology.
Thereafter, Smartphone hardware and software as also newer
information and communication technologies became available to journalists and
even commoners in the 2000s.
These developments have led to the availability of features such
as Google
typing, input devices, and Google
translates for journalists and authors.
It is only
now, in 2020, that Microsoft and other companies are trying to use robots. They
were set to take on a more significant role in a networked society. The robots
have begun working alongside humans to improve output and create smarter
content.
The
terms such as robot journalism, robot reporter, ‘AI (artificial
intelligence) journalism’, AI-assisted
journalism, and ‘automated journalism’ are not new to journalists and the media
industry any more. These are bringing about changes within the profession
– and it is likely that software will play an increasing role in
journalism and media.
Prof Dr Kiran Thakur
Department of Journalism
Department of Journalism
FLAME University
Pune
drkiranthakur@gmail.com
drkiranthakur@gmail.com
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