Books List
● Francesco Marconi – Newsmakers Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism – Columbia University Press (2020)
AI has brought about a paradigm shift in how the world functions. While some fear displacement by AI, others embrace it, leveraging its capabilities for professional advancement. For journalists and news media professionals, it’s essential to see AI as an ally rather than a competitor. This brings us to the first book of the course – “The Newsmakers: AI and the Future of Journalism.” This book explores the concepts of AI and its impact on the newsroom, intending to express the idea that AI can augment—not automate—the industry. Throughout the book, it delves into essential questions like, “How is a computer able to understand someone’s emotions?” and “How do you scale the workforce using AI?” among many others that arise when applying AI in the newsroom. The author aims to guide journalists in adapting to new technologies and meeting evolving reader demands. The AI concepts and algorithms are presented in this book without mathematical jargon, making them understandable and implementable by a non-technical person. This book is designed to shift individuals from a traditional mindset to new thinking: grow with AI.
● AI In Media Personalized Content Revolution – By Rafeal Mechlore · 2023
AI is reforming the media industry by introducing an era of personalized content. Platforms like Netflix, Instagram, and YouTube now utilize AI to suggest content that aligns with individual user preferences. This shift has necessitated media practitioners to adapt to this new wave of
delivering personalized content to their audience.
This book by Rafael Mechlore highlights the importance of using AI to customize the reports and articles presented to readers. It explains to media practitioners how they can employ AI to analyze a client’s past reading habits and preferences and organize news that aligns with their
interests, thereby keeping their readers engaged. It also delves into a pertinent question of finding harmony between customization and client security.
Client privacy is important in a world where data is everything. It discusses the twin challenge of maintaining maximum content relevance for reader engagement while keeping an eye on user privacy against the ongoing commodification of data. This book thoroughly reviews the
transformative role of AI for content personalization and its ethical implications, providing invaluable insights for senior undergraduates and doctoral candidates of digital media studies required to face the future of media.
● Victoria L. Rubin – Misinformation and Disinformation Detecting Fakes with the Eye and AI – Springer (2022)
The creation and spread of misinformation has become a lot easier, given technological advancement. Manual fact-checking, a time-consuming task, requires journalists to sift through numerous online and offline sources, evaluating the reliability of each to assess the truthfulness of a claim. This process, depending on the complexity of the claim, can take professional fact-checkers hours or even days. This raises the question of how to detect fake news and misinformation in multimedia content automatically.
This book by Victoria L. Rubin elegantly addresses the negative impacts of AI and proposes AI-based solutions for media practitioners to detect misinformation. It discusses how one can conduct evidence-based research and adopt best practices in lie-catching and truth-seeking
professions to inform AI development. The book explores well-established human practices, such as the routines and processes used in detective work, journalism, and scientific inquiry, and how they contribute to innovative AI solutions. It explains the principles, inner workings, and recent evolution of five types of state-of-the-art AI technologies suitable for curtailing the spread of misinformation: automated deception detectors, clickbait detectors, satirical fake news detectors, rumor debunkers, and computational fact-checking tools.
● Nicholas Diakopoulos – Automating the News How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media – Harvard University Press (2019)
In this book, Nicholas Diakopoulos takes readers on a journey to understand how algorithms are transforming the production and dissemination of news. Bringing light on the rapidly evolving field of journalism, where stories are now frequently created and disseminated using computer algorithms, it becomes imperative that anybody involved in the media understand how these algorithms can expedite the publication of news, making it happen more quickly than in the past. Media professionals can get a great edge by comprehending and utilising these algorithms, which will enable them to stay up to date with today’s fast-paced news. This book also discusses data mining and newsbots—AI agents that disseminate information. The book’s writing style is designed to make it simple for non-technical readers to comprehend and use these AI techniques.
The book emphasizes the need to stay ahead in the digital age, making it a must-read for anyone attempting to comprehend the fusion of AI and modern journalism. This book I believe would help readers make the most of the available resources and opensource algorithms.
The following two materials are crucial for adapting to the impact of AI and guiding media practitioners on how to use AI effectively and ethically.
● The Journalist’s Toolbox – A Guide to Digital Reporting and AI (latest book published in January 2024)
AI is progressing at an extremely fast rate, faster than experts had ever predicted. In this fast-paced world, AI is widely used for multimedia content creation. Hence, it’s essential for media practitioners to stay updated with state-of-the-art AI tools and technologies to use them
for their professional growth.
This book discusses the latest AI tools (like BARD, ChatGPT, DALL·E, and many more), their impact on the newsroom, and how journalists can also use these tools. Focusing on the “how” and “why” of digital reporting, this textbook equips readers with the skills they need to succeed in today’s multimedia reporting landscape.
● Artificial Intelligence and the Media – Reconsidering Rights and Responsibilities
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
The use of AI in media raises many questions about the ownership of work and the responsibility for its impact on readers. Therefore, it is imperative to have knowledge about these issues.
This book presents the rules and regulations governing the use of AI by media practitioners. It explores what “AI” and “accountability” mean in the context of media practices, principles, and power relations. Moreover, it addresses the AI revolution with informed law and policy to
incentivize responsible utilization of AI and to mitigate negative societal impacts.
Hence, I believe this book is essential for the safe and legal use of AI by media practitioners.
“It could help the newsroom get more time and really focus on journalist work. Editors should work on reports where they bring in their view and where we can use their expertise as journalists; since writing normal reports is a little bit of a waste of time” – John Patrick Rott.
Reference
● Mechlore, Rafael. 2023. AI in Media: Personalized Content Revolution. India: Grace Publishers.
● Marconi, Francesco. 2020. Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism. New York: Columbia University Press.
● Rubin, Victoria L. 2022. Misinformation and Disinformation: Detecting Fakes with the Eye and AI. Springer.
● Diakopoulos, Nicholas. 2019. Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media. Harvard University Press.
● Reilley, Mike. The Journalist’s Toolbox: A Guide to Digital Reporting and AI. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2024.
● Artificial Intelligence and the Media: Reconsidering Rights and Responsibilities. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022.
Recent Comments