Innovations in Local News Media online seminar series: AI in Local Journalism

The MeCCSA Local and Community Media Network presents the fourth in a series of online seminars for 2024 focused on innovations in local news media. This panel event has a focus on the role of AI in local journalism.

Panel: Relevance, Innovation, and Use Cases of Responsible AI in Local Journalism

Over the last two decades, local news media have experienced unprecedented economic challenges, significantly diminishing the quality and quantity of local news provision (Blagojev et al., 2023; Wahl-Jorgensen, 2019). Therefore, technical innovations have become increasingly important for local news organizations (Gulyas & Gashi, 2021), with a notable shift towards automation and data-driven processes along the news value chain, partially supported by artificial intelligence (AI) (Beckett & Yaseen, 2023; Kotenidis & Veglis, 2021).

At the same time, the acceleration of AI development has caused uncertainty among media professionals regarding the integrity of information and preserving journalism’s societal role, which has recently led to the proclamation of the Paris Charter on AI and Journalism (Reporters Without Borders, 2023). Among other things, the core principles state that media outlets should use AI responsibly in gathering, processing, or disseminating information.

Against this background, this panel pursues three goals: First, it will give an overview of the current state of research on responsible AI in (local) journalism. Second, based on a project with a local newspaper organization, it will showcase the usefulness of Design Thinking as a user-centric approach to develop responsible AI in local journalism. Third, an exemplary case on the use of AI for local news-headline generation for news articles will be presented.

Contribution 1: The current state of responsible AI in (local) journalism.

Maximilian Eder, Department of Media and Communication, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

Local journalism all over Europe is facing unprecedented economic challenges with severe consequences for local communities and, more broadly, for democratic societies. AI is praised by practitioners and academics alike because it offers various opportunities to cope better with such challenges. However, such AI applications should also be responsible, i.e., not only increase economic efficiency but also adhere to professional journalistic values and promote news diversity. Therefore, the talk will give an overview of the current state of research on responsible AI in (local) journalism and discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Contribution 2: Levering design thinking for responsible AI innovation.

Bartosz Wilczek & Roxana Portugal, Department of Media and Communication, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

The innovation of responsible AI in (local) journalism calls for user-centric approaches that involve journalists who shape AI tools based on their journalistic quality and ethics standards. Design Thinking is a promising approach for co-creation as it draws on interdisciplinarity to solve complex problems. However, no established Design Thinking approaches exist for developing responsible AI in (local) journalism. Therefore, based on a completed project with a local newspaper organization that developed a low-fidelity prototype of an AI fact-checking tool, this talk will showcase how Design Thinking can be leveraged to develop responsible AI in local journalism.

Contribution 3: Automatic generation of engaging news headlines for regional news media.

Reshmi Gopalakrishna Pillai, Department of Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Carefully crafted headlines are instrumental in capturing readers' attention in news articles, especially in an online environment with plenty of easily accessible media alternatives. Stylistic and linguistic features are shown to influence the engagement received and hence used in the automatic generation of news headlines. However, the influential role of such factors is shown to differ with respect to the regional or national scope of the news media. This talk will present an overview of the existing findings, especially in the context of the Dutch news media.