Learn about AI for text journalists

This article shares resources from the second of 8 webinars to help journalists and editors understand opportunities and threats of AI, and begin to use AI tools, to make informed decisions about their use in their newsrooms and businesses. The program is funded by the Walkley Public Fund. Learn more and donate here.

Each session explores AI opportunities, threats, and tools for a specific area of journalism, and offers a practical activity or question that you can try out as homework. By August, you’ll have new AI skills and insights to help your newsroom adapt to this rapidly changing technology!

OVERVIEW OF THE SESSION

What opportunities do tools like ChatGPT offer text journalism — and how can they help you do your job? What problems or risks do you need to be aware of?

TRAINER

Dr James Meese, Senior Lecturer at RMIT University. James is part of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society (ADM+S), contributing to projects across the News and Media focus area.

EXPERT SPEAKERS

• Lisa Main, co-author of Gen AI and Journalism, a new report from the Centre for Media Transition at University of Technology Sydney. Lisa will discuss findings of the report, based on interviews with Australian newsroom leaders.
• Craig McCosker, Group Product Manager for Future Focus at ABC Digital Product. Craig will speak about AI initiatives at the ABC including projects for text reporting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this webinar you will:

• Understand what ‘Large Language Models’ like ChatGPT do and how they work
• Understand the differences between the most commonly used LLMs.
• Understand how the prompts you give an LLM influence the quality of the results
• Understand the effectiveness of different prompting techniques.
• Understand how ChatGPT is being used to support text-based journalism in newsroom settings (expert speakers)
• Understand the opportunities and risks of using LLMs to support text-based journalism
• Be able to set up an account with the most commonly used LLMs (Bard, Copilot, ChatGPT3)
• Be able to carry out basic text-based tasks in the most commonly used LLMs (Bard, ChatGPT3).
• Be able to use zero-shot and standard prompting in a professional context.

RESOURCES

• Download the slide deck here.
• Watch the webinar here.
• Handout 1 — Accounts to set up
• Handout 2 — LLM Explainers
• Handout 3 — LLM Use Cases
• Handout 4 — Prompt Engineering
• Handout 5 — Homework

Full list of 2024 sessions:

1. Get your newsroom AI-Ready for 2024 — December 4, 2023

2. Learn about AI for Text Journalists — February 12, 2024

3. AI and Investigative Journalism — 14 March 2024

4. AI for Photojournalists and Video Reporters — April 2024

5. AI — Visualisations and Interactives — 15 May 2024

6. AI and Audio Journalism — 6 June 2024

7. AI and Copyright, Media Law, Verification and Fact-Checking — July 2024

8. AI and Newsroom Workflows — August 2024

FURTHER INFORMATION

Corinne Podger, Senior Manager for Programs and Education, Walkley Foundation — corinne.podger@walkleys.com.

SUPPORT THE WALKLEY PUBLIC FUND

This program is made possible with the support of The Walkley Public Fund. Donations to the Public Fund are tax-deductible in Australia, and help the Foundation to support professional development programs including grants, scholarships, fellowships, and training. Learn more and donate here.