Editor’s Note: PGM staff members decide on the topic of a Staff Ed together. The staff as a whole provides opinions and content included in this Staff Ed to provide thoughts about and shed light on solutions for happenings at Pepperdine.
Ken Griffey Jr., MLB hall of famer, is known for many things — hitting over 600 home runs and wearing his hat backwards during the Home Run Derby to name a couple. Griffey Jr. is also known for his quote: “To succeed in baseball, as in life, you must make adjustments.”
Just like baseball, adjustment is necessary in journalism, and the industry has shown time over time it will make those adjustments.
While some argue journalism is “dying,” this isn’t the case. The journalism industry is bright and making the required changes to adapt and grow.
Two weeks ago, the Graphic attended the Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Conference (ACP) — a college journalism convention, where nearly 1,000 college journalists came together to learn from one another.
Throughout the three-day long conference, college journalists from approximately 90 of schools hosted panels on topics such as managing relationships with a sports information director and reporting on a private university and had roundtable discussions to pick each others brains, among other activities.
If the journalism industry was as dead as many claim it is, there wouldn’t be hundreds of young adults attending a convention like ACP and learning from each other so they can be the best journalist possible.
Additionally, a common reason people say “journalism is dying” is due to the prominence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but AI was acknowledged in full both at the convention and in the industry as a whole. The journalism industry isn’t running and hiding from AI — rather we’re using it to enhance our platforms.
For example, the Associated Press is using AI for translation, transcription, headlines and research, according to Life Hacker. Additionally, the San Francisco Chronicle is using AI to help with search engine optimization and summaries for other platforms, but made clear they won’t post anything without human eyes looking over it, according to their website.
AI in journalism isn’t something scary that’s going to destroy our industry; it’s a tool that will help us. Most of us at the Graphic use Otter.ai to transcribe our interviews, avoiding the tediousness of spending our time typing out each quote ourselves.
The fact the future of journalism is so bright should be exciting, especially given the rise of AI. Journalism is a defense against AI and the spread of misinformation.
When a social media account posts something untrue, they can simply delete or edit the post without acknowledging they had spread misinformation. No transparency is required. Not to mention, fake news often spreads quicker than real news, according to the University of Victoria.
Meanwhile, professional journalists’ jobs and livelihoods are put on the line when misinformation is spread. At the Graphic, if we make a mistake in our reporting, we include a correction note at the top of the story explaining the error.
AI isn’t the first invention to rock the journalism world, nor is it the first time journalists have had to adapt. Inventions such as the television, the internet or social media — all things that were supposed to kill journalism — have only strengthened the industry.
Journalism now is different from what it was 20 years ago, just like how journalism 20 years ago was different from journalism 40 years ago. New inventions will be made that will change the world, but every time journalism will change with it.
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