Robots can write, but are they ethical?
Paul Chadwick writes about how artificial intelligence could damage public trust in journalism.
“For the time being, (ethics) codes could simply require that when AI is used the journalists turn their minds to whether the process overall has been compatible with fundamental human values,” he writes.
Covering a time span of 84 years, iMediaEthics releases its annual report on the top media ethics issues.
Leading the list, writes Sydney Smith, is behavior in the workplace — the explosive story of top media figures who lost their jobs because of sexual misconduct.
In tenth place, the Associated Press releases a yearlong review into its working relationship with Nazis in Germany before World War Two.
International coverage of gender and power: Pete Vernon writes about BuzzFeed News’s global women’s rights and gender reporter.
Women spend much of their lives and energy preparing against being attacked by a stranger, she says, when in fact more than 95 percent of the time we are violated by people we know.
New poll, same results: Public trust in the media is at an all-time low.
Knight-Gallup survey shows Americans can’t name an objective news source.
Half of Americans say more news sources make it harder to be informed.
Concern over “fake news” is high.
FM stations: Small voices of the media.
Kirk Johnson writes that a diverse new wave of stations has arrived in urban America.
It is an unprecedented time in radio history, says a source.
Avoiding Twitter snafus: Sydney Smith says tweets caused media and staffers problems in 2017.
Among them: Old tweets, hoax or parody Twitter accounts, false tweets, tweets that cost jobs, flippant tweets and racist or anti-Semitic tweets.
Touchy subject — using the term “racist” while covering President Trump.
“Placing labels on speech by any public figure runs the risk of editorialization, and newsroom decision makers are wary of overstepping conventional norms,” writes Pete Vernon.
Bottom line: It’s time reporters do what columnists and opinion writers do, says Vernon.
Basic digital security competence is now essential for all journalists, writes Joshua Oliver.
“These days, bad security habits could betray your sources, or the sources of the reporter sitting next to you,” by clicking the wrong link.
Journalism schools surveyed devote less than two hours to digital security training, writes Oliver. Security should become a habit.
On the whole, the world is getting better, writes Bill Gates, Time Magazine’s first-ever guest editor.
“To some extent, it is good that bad news gets attention,” he writes. “If you want to improve the world, you need something to be mad about. But it has to be balanced by upsides. When you see good things happening, you can channel your energy into driving even more progress.”
Bad news arrives as drama while good news is incremental — and not usually deemed newsworthy, he writes.
Apologies to the seven-foot-tall hairy alien biped community: Sydney Smith lists the top ten media corrections of 2017, including a correction of a correction.
