So… How can AI and Journalism Work Together?
Before author Chad Owsley defines AI as an agent in journalism, he first gives a brief history of artificial intelligence and then separately defines artificial intelligence and journalism. Owsley writes, “Rather, AI is designed by humans to imitate humans in behavior and mannerism, and AI should be capable of exceeding human behavior and intelligence beyond natural fallacy” (Owsley, 2022, p. 4) Owsley relies on the definitions of journalism from Nicholas Diakopoulos’ book, Automating the News, “a practice of news information and knowledge production that is filtered through a particular value system.” (Diakopoulos, 2019). From there, he references the four things a journalist is from Diakopoulos again, saying, “The function of the journalist fulfilling this definition of journalism can be distilled down to four primary operations. The journalist observes their environment, develops new or amended knowledge, chooses how to frame a story about this new knowledge, and communicates this new knowledge in news story form to inform a civic-minded audience (Diakopoulos, 2019).
On page 14, Chad Owsley defines AI as an agent in journalism as “An Artificial Intelligence functioning as an agent in journalism is an intelligent machine capable of imitating human journalistic intelligence, values, thinking, and/or behavior at a high level of fidelity with no human involvement required beyond initial programming.” (Owsley, 2022)
How Does Automated Journalism Compare?
In Owsley’s concept explication, he writes from Matt Carlson that automated journalism is the “algorithmic processes that convert data into narrative news texts with limited to no human intervention beyond the initial programming” (Carlson, 2015, p. 418). There’s a human touch to the framework of automated journalism, but that’s really it. Everything else is completely automated which can lead to problems with fact errors, lack of objectivity and more.
One overlap between the two terms is that both concepts describe a process where AI can produce journalism with minimal or no human intervention after the initial setup. Carlson defines automated journalism as involving “limited to no human intervention beyond the initial programming”, and Graefe’s definition specifies that the algorithm operates “without human involvement beyond the initial programming”. Similarly, Owsley’s definition of an AI agent states it requires “no human involvement required beyond initial programming”.
One key difference is that automated journalism is a specific application or process, defined as the use of “algorithmic processes that convert data into narrative news texts with limited to no human intervention beyond the initial programming” (Owsley, 2022, p. 10). It describes a particular task: the automated creation of news stories from data. On the other hand, AI as an agent is a broader conceptual role that an intelligent machine can assume. When AI functions as an agent, it moves beyond being just a tool or a process and becomes a communicator. An “Artificial Intelligence functioning as an agent in journalism is an intelligent machine capable of imitating human journalistic intelligence, values, thinking, and/or behavior at a high level of fidelity with no human involvement required beyond initial programming” (Owsley, 2022, p.14). This role as an agent implies not just producing content, but also establishing a relationship with the audience and potentially inheriting the obligations and values of a human journalist
One final difference between the two terms is the level of intelligence and independence the two concepts require. The definitions cited for automated journalism can range from simple to complex operations. Graefe (2016) notes that it can involve basic tasks like filling out pre-designed story templates from a database. This aligns with what Owsley’s paper identifies as Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), which is excellent at a single programmed task. Owsley’s definition requires a much higher and more holistic level of capability. The AI agent must be able to imitate “human journalistic intelligence, values, thinking, and/or behavior at a high level of fidelity” (Owsley, 2022, p. 4). This includes more involved activities like decision-making, problem-solving, learning, and creating. While current AI is ANI, Owsley’s framework points toward a future Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that could apply knowledge across various tasks, a lot like a human journalist.
This comparison of AI as an agent in journalism and automated journalism helps clarify what is truly at stake as AI becomes more integrated into the newsroom. The comparison improves my understanding by moving beyond a task-oriented view of AI that I had to a more profound one that considers AI’s potential to function as an independent communicator and competitor with human journalists.
References
Carlson, M. (2015). The Robotic Reporter. Digital Journalism, 3(3), 416–431.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2014.976412
Diakopoulos, N. (2019). Automating the news: How algorithms are rewriting the media. (MU
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Graefe, A. (2016). Guide to Automated Journalism (Tow Center for Digital Journalism
Publications). Columbia University. https://doi.org/10.7916/D80G3XDJ
Owsley, C. S., University of Nebraska at Omaha, DigitalCommons@UNO, Communication Faculty Publications School of Communication, & School of Journalism, University of Missouri. (2022). Artificial Intelligence as Agent in Journalism: A concept Explication. In Communication Faculty Publications School of Communication [Journal-article]. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/commfacpub/article/1110/&path_info=Artificial_Intelligence_as_Agent_in_Journalism.pdf
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Perkin, T. (2020, April 30). Automated journalism [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRm46ZGdKXE
Wu, S. (2024). Journalists as individual users of artificial intelligence: Examining journalists’ “value-motivated use” of ChatGPT and other AI tools within and without the newsroom. Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1177_14648849241303047
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