News braces for new wave of technology

Just when journalists and news services were getting the hang of online and mobile technology, now we'll need to adapt to artificial intelligence, augmented reality and automated journalism, according to Online News Association.

New technological innovations could really change the news business. Rice University's Dominic Boyer said it might be another 10 to 20 years before we see augmented reality technology.

“For example, before artificial intelligence is really going to be perfected to the point it becomes a threat to journalists, where we can imagine computers writing news journalism articles,” said Boyer.

For example, he said artificial intelligence has to be perfected where it's threatening journalists who write stories.

Boyer said how people get their news is very real challenge, though.

“There are real concerns whether news organizations are prepared to deal with those new kinds of demands, because it requires more technological investment at a time when news companies are struggling,” said Boyer.

However, technology has helped journalists when it comes to research and fact check quickly.

University of Houston's Rodica Damian said it's about the skills you bring to journalism jobs.

“More and more reporters, for example, might use artificial intelligence to gather news, but they’ll still have to analyze it,” Damian said.

Some outlets are already using AI bots to rewrite stories from other sources.

For the time being, Damian said journalism jobs that are safe from being replaced by robots include: photographers, editors, analysts, announcers and, reporters.

However, TV camera operators are dangerously close to being computerized.


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