ChatGPT, robotization, artificial intelligence are words that may have frightened those who work in journalism and also those who consume information produced by professionals. Could innovations in the field of technology put an end to the way news is produced? Researchers heard by Agência Brasil indicate that the discussion is not so simple. Automation, sensitivity and deepening can fit in the same sentence and make up possible and real solutions, in the evaluation of the interviewees. Experts on the subject understand that quality and human sensitivity for content production are not replaced by robots. In any case, the subject always requires attention and vigilance in view of the activity’s social function. Professor Sílvia Dalben, doctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin (United States), studies automated journalism and the use of artificial intelligence in news content with the main focus on the newsrooms of communication vehicles in Latin America. “The threat of journalism is not artificial intelligence,” she says. She contextualizes that the profession has always been shaped by technology. “If Gutenberg’s press hadn’t existed, we wouldn’t have any printed publications. How would journalism be without the invention of radio, television, computers and later the internet? artificial is getting a lot of attention”. She understands that there is a change in the business model of journalism and this mutation generates distrust. Media conglomerates are in transformation. “There was a time when they thought that no one would get used to reading the news on a computer screen”, she exemplifies. Platforms are constantly changing and this can lead to new job opportunities and viability of existence. Other types of journalism For the researcher, factual journalism, in the newsroom, will continue to exist. “It will need to go through adjustments because new technologies are emerging.” She identifies, however, that technologies are supporting investigative reporting and new guidelines in the field of data journalism. “It wouldn’t be possible without the internet” Report as a way out Journalism professor Fabiana Moraes, from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), points out that robots have been used for much longer to produce news. The professional, before teaching, turned her career into a lesson in sensitivity in the face of social dramas that she turned into guidelines on the coast, in the wild and in the hinterland. From that point of view, she became one of the most recognized professionals in Brazil for her free narrative formats, full of denunciations and life stories. With her way of writing, she received, for example, three Esso awards. In her reports, the lives of the most humble, humiliated and vulnerable are placed in the spotlight of real scenes. Reports impossible to be simulated by robots. “We point to reporting as one of those spaces of inflection that, many times, will not be possible no matter how much the technology is refined”. She believes that the human look at existing problems in the world can even be simulated, but it will not be efficient. It may be fiction, but not journalism that moves readers. “I think it’s very difficult for this to be brought about by technology alone.” To survive The researchers argue that it is necessary to recognize the role of journalism in society. They understand that society has verified productions that circulate based on misinformation, and that do not contribute to social dramas, such as racism, homophobia or misogyny. “We have a threat: artificial intelligence and the dissemination of unchecked content. It is necessary to be very careful with the investigation, with fact-checking. This is the differential and will generate value to journalistic content”, says Sílvia Dalben. Fabiana Moraes, from a similar perspective, lists a scenario of precarious activity and threats to ethical information with the dissemination of misinformation via robots. According to her, the concern is linked to the defense of democracy and the need to avoid damage to society For Silvia Dalben, journalism that only seeks to attract an audience, which is shallow and superficial, can be done by robots, by artificial intelligence. “It’s a threat [real] because it creates this vision of society that this would be journalism and other people think they can also be journalists”, he evaluates. This, however, would be a type of journalism that causes distortions and does not help society. “What journalists need it’s thinking about quality journalism with verification, with fact-checking. What adds value to the content and differentiates what we write from what anyone else writes, including a robot, is the deepening”, Sílvia points out. A procedure that, according to the teachers, collaborates with a critical and useful vision for society. Revolution The view that technology will transform everything in the future is wrong, point out experts. “We have to understand that the revolution does not start now and is not focused on the future. We are already in this revolution”, says the Brazilian researcher residing in the United States. According to the researchers, artificial intelligence should be seen, in the day-to-day of journalism, as a hybrid function that can be useful for professionals in the press, for society and for democracy Journalism, however, is an activity that must defend citizenship and freedom – words that are best understood by those who are flesh and blood.
Agência Brasil
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