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2: Digital Journalism - The Good, Bad, and Uncertain

  • Page ID
    280059
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    Introduction - What Isn't Digital Today?

    These days "Digital Journalism" means almost all journalism. According to Pew Research Center:

    When asked which of these platforms they prefer to get news on, 58% of Americans say they prefer a digital device, far higher than the share who prefer TV (32%). Relatively few Americans prefer radio (6%) or print (4%).

    That means the majority of U.S. adults already rely on digital journalism. But for 20 years, many journalism brands have treated smartphones, computer, tablets like were just another form or newspaper, magazine, television, or radio. So many consumers have moved on from those platforms. From Pew:

    News websites or apps are also the most preferred source for news. About a quarter of U.S. adults (23%) say they prefer to get their news this way, compared with 18% who prefer social media, 12% who prefer search and 5% who prefer podcasts. The share of Americans who prefer social media has increased by 6 percentage points since 2023.

    Professional Journalism in Social Media

    In a recent study, Pew found, "About half of TikTok users (52%) – equivalent to 17% of all U.S. adults – say they regularly get news on the site. ... But many TikTok users appear not to be actively following journalists or news media outlets on the site. In fact, fewer than 1% of all the TikTok accounts that Americans follow belong to these types of institutional news sources."

    Why does this matter? What is replacing these traditional sources of news? Influencers. A lot of them. And that might be okay, but an influencer does not always live by the standards of a professional journalist. Watch this excellent TikTok explainer(opens in new window) (QR code below) from Washington Post reporter Dylan Wells to help us understand some of those differences.

    QR code to TikTok explainer.png

    Looking at broad trends is not enough to understand digital media consumption. Explore this chart from Pew(opens in new window) (QR code below). Your age and your political affiliation play a large role of what media you consume and how much you trust it. Somehow, professional journalists need to navigate a host of platforms, media types, presentation styles for audiences across age ranges and ideologies. If being a journalist were not so important to society, it might not even be worth the effort. But it is important.

    QR code to Pew Research.png

    Journalism and Artificial Intelligence

    I have tested multiple AI tools and I do not like any of their writing styles. Why? None of them "sounds" like me. That could change. In fact, it will change, because AI is built to look for patterns and when I say "sounds like me," that is a pattern of sorts. So a tool that "sounds" like my writing is in my near future. So we are not going to ignore AI in this book about journalism, we are going to face it head on. And to start, I have three questions:

    1. How much writing do you need to do yourself before you have a "sounds like me" style?
    2. What would it mean for AI to write your work for you totally? If I were your boss, why would I hire you instead of that bot?
    3. How much do we actually know about AI at this point?

    The first two questions are worth pondering as we start to answer the third with some sections from writing teacher Anna Mills.

    • 2.1: How Has Social Media Changed Journalism?
      This page explores the influence of social media on journalism, featuring a video by Blair Best. It compares traditional reporters and social media influencers in terms of their reporting styles and credibility. The text raises the question of whether the label "influencer" is pejorative, as suggested by Lars Larson, reflecting on the changing landscape of news delivery through social media. Overall, it highlights the significant transformation in the field of journalism driven by social media.
    • 2.2: Journalism and Artificial Intelligence
    • 2.3: AI can generate decent-sounding text. Do we still need to learn to write?
      Yes: drafting, revising, and reflecting in our own words helps us form ideas and practice critical thinking.
    • 2.4: Fighting Misinformation
      This page explores the connection between Social Media and Artificial Intelligence, focusing on the problem of misinformation. It examines the idea of training influencers to improve the reliability of news and information, encouraging readers to think about the feasibility and obstacles associated with this approach to tackle misinformation.


    2: Digital Journalism - The Good, Bad, and Uncertain is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Michael Humphrey, Johnson County Community College.