AI can’t take to the streets: journalism that begins the place ChatGPT ends | Training | Economy | EUROtoday

The rise of digital platforms might have remodeled the way in which of telling a narrative or connecting with the reader, but it surely has not been capable of change the place the place the most effective tales proceed to be constructed. Because good journalism, remembers Manuel Jabois in a phone dialog, isn’t carried out from the consolation of a desk, however relatively by going out into the road: “To stay at home and limit yourself to collecting data and writing it, we already have ChatGPT, which perhaps even does it better than the professional himself. What AI cannot do is be on the street, observe what is happening, talk to people, or describe and recreate an atmosphere.” Street journalism is, due to this fact, extra needed than ever: “The more the journalist takes refuge at home, the less necessary it will be, and the more he goes out into the streets, the more essential he will become.”

The good reporter has to make a distinction, and that’s achieved by “acting like a human being, that is, going out into the street to ask questions and get answers,” remembers Jabois, journalist and author. “Search for references or documents, consult the newspaper library… the AI ​​does that faster than you and me.” Which, nevertheless, doesn’t deny the largest one: the profound transformation that the media have undergone to adapt to a context the place the competitors to seize the reader’s consideration is way larger than earlier than, and that has undoubtedly modified the way in which of telling actuality: “The aim is to engage readers more, because before they did not have so many stimuli. But that does not mean that the style has to be prostituted, because neatness and truth have to be the same when observing and writing,” he provides.

That identical rigidity between what synthetic intelligence can already do and what stays irreplaceably human is what’s addressed, amongst many different facets, by the Master’s Degree in Advanced Digital Journalism Projects from UNIR and EL PAÍS, whose registration closes on March 31 (though courses will start two weeks earlier than, on the sixteenth). A coaching on-line geared toward lively professionals, current graduates and content material creators the place sensible studying is enriched with the contribution of lively journalists equivalent to Kiko Llaneras, Manuel Jabois, Mónica Ceberio, Patricia Peiró or Andrea Rizzi, and the chance to hold out skilled internships [de unas 135 horas, el equivalente a poco más de un mes] in editorial places of work equivalent to EL PAÍS and different PRISA Media publications equivalent to El HuffPost, AS, Podium Podcast, Cadena SER, Los40, Caracol Radio or W Radio in Colombia and Mexico or ADN Radio in Chile.

Throughout the grasp’s diploma, college students can have the chance to discover new digital narratives and purchase the mandatory abilities to develop and handle their very own private tasks: from podcast to video blogs or newsletters, passing by way of information journalism, the influence of synthetic intelligence on search engine marketing methods and the crucial use of AI as a precious assist instrument.

Permanently up to date content material

Digital journalism modifications so shortly that what we discovered simply two years in the past might sound like archeology as we speak. Now, is it attainable to adapt to an setting the place the principles of the sport change nearly on the pace of an algorithm? “One of the strong points of this master’s degree is precisely the constant updating of its contents,” explains Víctor Gutiérrez, tutorial coordinator of this system. A transparent instance, he signifies, is in search engine marketing: what simply 5 years in the past was a strategic pillar of any digital newsroom is now faltering with the emergence of synthetic intelligence instruments like Perplexity, that are built-in into conventional engines like google like Google and provide full solutions with out the reader needing to enter the supply. “This implies enormous transformations in business models (since clicks per page views are decreasing very quickly) and we are incorporating these new developments into the classroom, so that students do not study journalism that has already become obsolete,” summarizes Gutiérrez.

The collaboration with lively professionals from PRISA Media gives the opposite important pillar of the grasp’s diploma, permitting every tutorial block to floor in actual apply. Thus, for instance, those that take the information journalism topic not solely be taught primary notions of statistics or using instruments like Flourish, however in addition they hear straight from journalists like Kiko Llaneras explaining how they assemble their items, what the foundations of knowledge journalism are and what narrative choices they make every day. “This direct contact with leading professionals turns each class into a practical exercise in which theory and reality come together,” provides the educational coordinator.

Mentors for fixed assist

Distance studying often carries a stigma: the coed’s feeling of loneliness in entrance of the display. A niche that, within the UNIR and PRISA grasp’s diploma, is roofed due to the function of the mentors. “They are our great allies,” says Víctor Gutiérrez, tutorial coordinator of the grasp’s diploma. Their job, along with being out there to reply attainable calls from college students, is to intently accompany every scholar, be attentive to how the course is progressing and resolve any sort of doubts they could have. Continuous and nearly every day monitoring that makes this program on-line in a way more human area.

Another of the keys to this system, says Gutiérrez, is the 4P methodology (targeted on downside fixing, the event of a portfolio and a transversal venture, and the pliability required by every individual’s private circumstances), which turns every session right into a sensible train. Thus, every scholar begins the grasp’s diploma with all of the subjects and audiovisual supplies out there, to that are added the reside classes (which will even be recorded for later session): “These are not classes to give a rant and turn off Zoom, but to work with real problems,” he factors out. Examples can vary from designing a technique in opposition to trolls that harass a media outlet on networks to creating a video to rejoice a grandmother’s eightieth birthday (how do you articulate that video in order that it tells the story of her life?). In each instances, the idea is utilized to recognizable conditions, with debates that power college students to suppose like journalists and never simply listeners.

This sensible studying is in flip accomplished with a transversal venture that crosses all the topics, with which the scholars form their very own digital medium: by way of group actions, they be taught to monetize it, to create a group by way of newsletters o podcasts, and to inform tales with information or visible narratives, acquiring alongside the way in which a suggestions which could be very attention-grabbing. “All subjects come together in this common project,” explains Gutiérrez, “so that students understand that the objective of the master’s degree is not to accumulate theory, but to come out with a viable and sustainable journalistic product and with the tools to make it grow.”

Artificial intelligence, rather more than a ‘chatbot’

If Víctor Gutiérrez is evident about one factor, it’s that synthetic intelligence can’t and shouldn’t be prevented. But additionally that making applicable use of AI entails growing all the mandatory abilities: “Surfing the wave is not the same as trying to dive underneath it,” he warns. “For this reason, in the master’s degree we give people the ability to be at the top, to have perspective on what is happening, to master it and know how to use that creative energy that is being produced.” The emergence of those applied sciences is quickly remodeling the career and requires journalists able to understanding them, mastering them and placing them to work of their favor.

But what prospects does AI provide? For Gutiérrez, merely asking ChatGPT to jot down a press launch is staying on the floor: “Artificial intelligence in journalism is much more: it is training a bot to, for example, analyze satellite images and measure the real progress of the fires in Spain this summer, contrast it with data from the autonomous communities or the Ministry, and thus offer verified and valuable information.”

The grasp’s diploma strikes on this frontier, with the aim of seeing AI not as an enemy that threatens the career, however as a instrument able to multiplying its prospects. “ChatGPT is useful, of course,” Gutiérrez acknowledges, “but AI goes much further. It’s about mastering the system, understanding it, and taking advantage of it to continue doing our job in the best possible way.”