As artificial intelligence and our understanding of it becomes more sophisticated, the dismissive term “robot journalism” has become less and less common.
Back in October, I shared The Associated Press’ plans to help local newsrooms make the most of automation. Now, we have their next step in the project — a look at what the AP learned from the nearly 200 newsrooms that took part in a survey.
From the report: “In general, we confirmed our suspicion about the AI gap between large and small organizations. In the cohort we surveyed, AI technologies were not in wide use. But the reasons largely came down to a lack of any cushion required to experiment. Experimentation with AI and automation technologies requires the capacity of staff, a strong foundation with current technology, time and money. Many newsrooms spoke of staff turnover, frequently losing the one person who had been the driver of innovation. Others spoke of being unable to spare one of a handful of reporters to take a month to learn how a speculative technology might enhance, and not distract, from their other duties. What’s more, current technology in local newsrooms is patchy and often does not sync. Adding still another layer to an already cumbersome technology stack can be out of the question for many newsrooms. Innovation requires customizing off-the-shelf products, building new products and/or partnering with vendors or universities. In all instances, someone needs to understand how to maintain these products. Someone needs to take the lead. And, then, some experiments ultimately fail, and that failure can sink a local newsroom.”
You can read the full report and learn about next steps here.
More free training on the American Rescue Plan:
I previously wrote about three free trainings, thanks to the Joyce Foundation, aimed at helping local reporters cover the American Rescue Plan Act. You can see what we learned last week in the first workshop, on which IRE was a partner. And, good news, we’ve opened up enrollment for next week’s training, which focuses on ARPA and public safety.
I asked my training partners what they hope people will learn. From The Marshall Project’s Weihua Li and Anastasia Valeeva, you’ll learn how to find the ARPA requirements of your state, county, city or town and what documents they have to produce, and how to take advantage of existing tools to analyze and find stories. And from CBS Chicago’s Samah Assad, you’ll learn “how to uncover policing stories in your community by getting your hands on key data and records, including story ideas you can start digging into today,” Assad said, and “when police agencies deny your FOIA requests or there’s a lack of data, how to overcome these roadblocks and still successfully tell these important stories.”
I hope to see you next week!
Learn:
If you’ve been paying any attention at all to LION Publishers, you know the organization that serves local for- and nonprofit digital newsrooms has itself been through a big transformation in the last few years. Here’s a curtain pullback with five tools LION uses to create its culture.
From Better News, learn how 100 Days in Appalachia is moving toward sustainability and how craft beer helped Vermont Public Radio.
From the American Press Institute, learn how local newsrooms are boosting revenue with merch.
Nieman Lab reports on journalism’s racial reckoning and all the work that’s left to do.
From my colleague Amaris Castillo, learn how the Los Angeles Times created a guide to help people after sexual assault.
Funding:
Friday is the deadline to apply to be part of the Data-Driven Reporting Project from Medill and the Google News Initiative.
If your newsroom wants to take part in NewsMatch, the Institute for Nonprofit News and its partners have moved the deadline up. If your newsroom wants to participate, it needs to apply for membership to INN by April 15.
Check out the American Journalism Project’s impact report. “American Journalism Project grantees grow by an average of 67 percent in Year One of their grant and are projecting to double their revenue by Year Three.”
Attend:
The Collaborative Journalism Summit is May 18 and 19 in Chicago.
Congrats:
Here are the winners of the 2022 Best in Photojournalism contest from the National Press Photographers Association.
For my obit work for the Tampa Bay Times, I wrote about a woman who died 59 years ago, was hailed a hero, buried in an unmarked grave and the two men who want to change that.
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