The challenge of 'plagiarism' from AI for media workers in the digital age

The workshop attracted many presentations and reports from speakers and experts such as: "Data journalism in the AI era", Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Quang Dieu (Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics); "The role of corporate communications in the context of digital transformation", Dr. Le Thi Thu Hang (Academy of Posts and Telecommunications Technology); "Digital technology and creative journalism model", Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc (Department of Press - Ministry of Information and Communications ) ...

The challenge of traditional journalists in the digital age 1 — Journalist Duong Thanh Huong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Education and Times Newspaper - Photo: BTC

Need for recruitment and use of human resources in the new context

Sharing at the workshop, journalist Duong Thanh Huong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Education and Times Newspaper, said that over the past 20 years, we have seen the rise of technology in world journalism. However, in Vietnam, we have only stopped at using technology in a fairly simple way.

“If we call it true digital transformation and a truly digital newsroom operating environment, not many press agencies have achieved it. Currently, many newsrooms are still mixing traditional methods with the use of some new tools,” journalist Duong Thanh Huong said.

In the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution, technology, finance and human resources are considered the three main pillars for digital transformation in newsrooms. According to Ms. Huong, technology is available for agencies to apply at any time. Finance, although important, is no longer a big problem for newsrooms. Therefore, human resources are the key and most important factor in the context of digital transformation.

“From the highest leadership level of a newspaper, the editorial board, to department and division leaders and the team of reporters and editors, everyone must have the qualifications and capacity to operate the digital transformation machine,” said the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Education and Times Newspaper.

The challenge of traditional journalists in the digital age 2 — Media and Media Training Conference 2024 with the theme "Media Technology" - Photo: Organizing Committee

From there, journalist Duong Thanh Huong said that it requires each reporter and editor to be aware of the use of technology and change their perception of technology. The staff must master digital transformation skills in the new era: digital journalism technology; skills in exploiting, verifying, and securing digital information; skills in creating and organizing multimedia journalism products; skills in working with IA, ChatGPT;...

"We always place orders with Journalism training schools to receive good and excellent graduates to guide and train them in a practical and pressured working environment at the newsroom," Ms. Huong said.

Journalism and media ethics in the AI era

Speaking at the workshop, Dr. Journalist Tran Ba Dung, Head of the Marketing - Communication Department of Hoa Sen University, pointed out that for journalism - communication, AI has the biggest and most obvious impact, which is the emergence of digital media - digital journalism, automated journalism, affecting the operation from creating digital content to producing digital products in the journalism ecosystem.

"In the converged newsroom model, digital technology is deployed in all activities from content production to business, distribution, and public interaction, all on digital platforms. In which, AI and new technologies (such as Blockchain, Chat GPT...) are powerful assistants of the digital content industry. This also poses many big challenges for journalism, from content production management to journalistic ethics and legal factors," said Mr. Ba Dung.

The challenge of traditional journalists in the digital age — Dr. Journalist Tran Ba Dung, Head of Marketing - Communication Department, Hoa Sen University - Photo: Organizing Committee

Accordingly, the Head of the Marketing and Communication Department of Hoa Sen University pointed out the challenges and negative impacts of AI on journalism and media and the issue of journalism and media ethics in the current period.

In particular, the use of fake data and news to produce journalistic works is a difficult issue to control. In particular, news from social networks, which is inherently unreliable, is now synthesized by AI and used in the press without verification by journalists, which is a deep concern for press leaders.

In addition, the fact that AI provides information and data easily and for free will create a mentality of dependence, laziness, and irresponsibility among journalists. "The challenge here is that the leader of the press agency must both encourage reporters to effectively use humanity's digital resources, and must have the ability and level to control reporters who 'plagiarize' from the internet thanks to AI," journalist Tran Ba Dung analyzed.

Along with that is the issue of copyright infringement. According to Mr. Ba Dung, many people, including journalists, freely use documents taken from Chat GPT and AI to write articles, forgetting about copyright. The number of electronic articles written from AI, by AI is very difficult to count and exceeds the control capacity of editorial offices.

According to the expert, this requires more social responsibility and ethics from the press in exploiting, processing, and providing information accurately and not abusing AI technology.

“Ethics is a core, vital issue for journalists and media workers, because journalism has a profound, strong, and immediate social impact. Especially when journalism transforms digitally and widely applies AI,” journalist Tran Ba Dung emphasized.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/thach-thuc-dao-van-tu-ai-cua-nguoi-lam-bao-chi--truyen-thong-trong-ky-nguyen-so-post303634.html