A speech to the Journalistfonden in Stockholm, Sweden

1. Prof Charlie Beckett,
LSE
@CharlieBeckett
Journalistfonden Seminar,
Stockholm,
November 2019
New powers,
new responsibilities
On the future of journalism and
artificial intelligence

2. Life’s a (media) riot
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2013/07/03/lifes-a-
media-riot-speech-to-almedalen-in-sweden/

4. Four topic strands
● Journalism credibility
● Platform responsibility
● Online political communications
(‘Democracy’)
● Media citizenship (‘Media Literacy’)

6. Key proposal: Independent Platform Agency
■ Report on trends in news and information sharing
■ Report on the effectiveness of self-regulation of the largest news-carrying
social and search platforms.
■ Mobilise and coordinate all relevant actors to ensure an inclusive and
sustained programme in media literacy
■ Report annually to Parliament on the performance of platforms’ self-regulation
and the longterm needs for possible regulatory action.
■ Work closely with Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority to monitor
the level of market dominance and the impact of platforms on media plurality and
quality

7. Other proposals:
News media should continue their important work to develop quality and
innovative revenue and distribution models. They should also continue to work
with civil society and the platforms on signalling the credibility of content.
Create a News Innovation Fund
Government should mobilise an urgent, integrated, new programme in media
literacy. This could also be funded by the digital platform levy and should include
digital media literacy training for politicians.
Parliament should bring forward legislation to introduce a statutory code on
political advertising as recommended by the Information Commissioner

8. Don’t panic!
● Don’t confuse political, economic and social problems with
a media crisis
● Is this a post-truth world or a multi-perspective world?
● Is the loss of ‘trust’ part of an institutional crisis – is the
reality a growth of skepticism and relativism?
● Technology: we know it is not neutral but what choices
can we make about who has the power to control its
influence and for what goals?

10. Artificial
Intelligence
❓ 🤔❓

11. Autonomy
The ability to perform tasks in complex environments
without constant guidance by a user.
Adaptivity
The ability to improve performance by learning from
experience.
Source: elementsofai.com

12. Artificial Intelligence
A collection of ideas, technologies, and
techniques that relate to a computer
system’s capacity to perform tasks
normally requiring human intelligence.
Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

13. What future for AI in news ?
🔹 How are journalists and news organisations adapting to AI technologies?
🔹 What are the challenges and opportunities they present?
🔹 What are the financial, ethical, and editorial implications?

14. The Journalism AI global survey
🔹 71 news organisations from 32 countries 🔹

15. The Journalism AI global survey

16. The Journalism AI report
Free to download online
from November 18th at:
blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis

17. What is AI
for news ?
🔹 News gathering
🔹 News production
🔹 News distribution

18. AI for news gathering

19. AI for news production

20. AI for news distribution

21. Is your
newsroom
AI-ready ?

22. Motivations for AI adoption
Source: The Journalism AI report

23. Strategic challenges to AI adoption
Lack of resources & willingness to invest
Lack of skills & challenges in hiring talent
Skepticism towards tech & fear of losing jobs
Cultural issues & gaps between departments
Lack of knowledge & understanding of AI
Lack of strategy and direction
Lack of time & inability to prioritise
Source: The Journalism AI report

24. A strategy for AI?
37% have an AI strategy
63% don’t have an AI strategy
🔹 Do you need a strategy?
🔹 If so, how should it look like?
🔹 Who leads on it?
🔹 Do you need new roles?
🔹 What challenges await you?
Source: The Journalism AI report

25. Editorial & Ethical implications
Source: The Journalism AI report
⚠️ Algorithmic bias
⚠️ Misinformation
⚠️ Transparency
⚠️ Savings vs Investments
⚠️ Artificial vs Human intelligence
⚠️ The role of tech companies

26. 🔹 Identify your stage and state of AI readiness
🔹 Understand the different kind of AI technologies available
🔹 Reflect on what problems you are trying to solve with AI
🔹 Identify what areas of your organisation might be helped by AI and how
🔹 Identify key obstacles and plan how to address them in a systematic way
🔹 Establish clear roles and responsibilities across the organisation
🔹 Pick one or more projects to experiment with and start small
Key steps to approach AI
Source: The Journalism AI report

27. Thoughts on the way forward
🔄 Changes to structures and culture
📖 Need for education and training
Potential for collaboration
(between news organisations & with research institutions)

29. The future of journalism and
artificial intelligence?
New powers…
...and new responsibilities

30. Prof Charlie Beckett
Director, Polis, LSE
#JournalismAI
@CharlieBeckett
c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk
Thank You