By Sachi Akmal, CISLM student employee
Before the Local Journalism Researchers’ Workshop officially began, participants gathered on March 16 for a deep dive into one of the industry’s pressing issues: AI’s role in the future of local journalism.
The pre-conference event featured two panels organized by Marisa Porto, Knight Chair of Local News and Sustainability at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and co-hosted by University of Kansas Assistant Professor Steve Bien-Aimé.
“As AI continues to reshape the media landscape, this pre-conference brought together the brightest minds to explore how local news organizations can harness AI responsibly to strengthen journalism and democracy,” Porto said. “We’re grateful to the speakers and attendees for their thoughtful discussions on both the opportunities and challenges AI presents. Local news leaders must keep this conversation going to shape the future of AI in journalism with a focus on ethics, transparency, and public service.”
The first panel focused on AI’s use in the newsroom. The second panel, “AI and the Journalism Business Model,” centered on the changes AI could bring to news organizations, for better or worse. The panelists spanned a wide range of backgrounds in journalism, media, and technology.
The online event was attended by about 100 participants, including a mix of students, early career professionals and senior level executives. The event included participants from five countries outside the United States, including Germany, China, Japan, India and South Africa.
“Thanks to Marisa Porto and the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media for hosting such important conversations about how AI is and will transform the journalism industry,” Bien-Aimé said. “As the speakers said throughout both panels, media must be bold — yet responsible — in piloting myriad forms of innovation.”
Here are six things to consider from the “AI and the Future of Local Journalism” event:
Newsrooms need AI guidelines now
Newsrooms should already have AI guidelines in place to address situations in which AI is used unethically, said Andrew Deck, a staff writer for Nieman Lab, whose beat is focused on AI’s use in the news media.
Deck, who has seen policy formation processes in newsrooms around the U.S., said he understood the challenges of developing a policy to address all potential AI-use cases. However, he encouraged newsrooms to be proactive on the issue of unethical AI use and develop standards that can evolve over time.
Guidelines can prevent the use of AI in secret and encourage experimentation consistent with newsroom ethics, said Tyler Dukes, lead editor for AI innovation in journalism at McClatchy Media. McClatchy Media publicly released its AI guidelines in January 2024, with a more extensive version for internal use. The company incorporated the voices of editors and reporters, which was crucial to its success, he said.
Develop an AI vision and strategy, and communicate it
News organizations that want to incorporate AI tools should avoid a top-down, mandated implementation, which risks alienating the newsroom from a helpful technology, said Lauren Berry, chief operations officer of news product, technology & publishing at Bloomberg.
Developing a vision and strategy for AI use, incorporating it into the organizational structure and communicating it throughout the organization is crucial for maintaining trust, especially with those who are fearful that their positions will be replaced with AI, said Mark McNeilly, professor of the practice at UNC-Kenan Flagler Business School and co-chair of the UNC Generative AI Committee.
“There’s a saying in the AI world: the good news is you’re not going to lose your job to AI,” he said. “The bad news is you’re going to lose your job to someone who knows AI.”
Newsrooms need to retrain their teams to use AI, and journalism schools should build that training into their curricula now, said Paul Cheung, strategic advisor and AI initiative lead for Hacks/Hackers, a nonprofit that fosters collaboration between journalists, civic leaders, academics, and technologists. He believes future reporters will need good human relations skills and a strong understanding of AI tools.
Fact-checkers are more important than ever
As AI tools appear to become more accurate, Dukes worries that newsrooms will grow more complacent in their fact-checking efforts. “Ninety-nine percent (accuracy) is not good enough in journalism,” he said.
Deck agreed. “I would encourage newsrooms to avoid snake oil out there that is promising automated fact-checking. I would encourage them to actually double down on their resources on fact-checking and copy desks because ultimately it is the news publishers — not the AI tools — that are liable for libel suits.”
AI transcripts can help uncover stories and sources
Newsrooms — especially small newsrooms that cover a large area — can not send their reporters to every city hall or local board meeting, said Amy Mitchell, executive director of the Center for News, Technology & Innovation. Reporters can account for these blind spots through access to AI transcripts of these meetings, which can uncover important stories they might have missed otherwise.
AI can also help with source development. The panel cited the example of a reporter from Chalkbeat, who was writing a story about the impact of President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender executive orders on LGBTQ students in Michigan. Using an AI product called Local Lens, which creates a database of AI transcriptions of school board meetings, the reporter conducted a keyword search to find a transgender student in a small school district who had spoken at a government meeting about their experience with bullying. The reporter found the student’s contact information and reached out for an interview.
Deck considers it a good example of how AI can be used in reporting – as a tool to uncover stories or develop sources, not as the story’s foundation.
Look to news outlets outside of the U.S.
According to Cheung, most news outlets in the U.S. try to emulate big players like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg. However, that model does not work for a small newsroom.
“Think about how African media was able to bypass the whole website (model) directly to mobile,” he said. “I would look at Africa and the global South to see what some of these really small newsrooms are doing with AI that’s leapfrogging the bureaucracy and the infrastructure of the U.S.”
AI’s value is still in question
“There is an enormous amount of money being poured into these companies as part of a marketing machine that is convincing us that this technology is valuable to us and is worth investing in,” Dukes said. “It may not be true. We need to be honest about that as an option.”
It is important to remember that not all AI experimentation will succeed, Berry said. However, in a rapidly changing media landscape, innovation is essential for news organizations to compete.