Journalism in the Age of AI: Challenges and Opportunities

In the digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an indispensable part of almost all fields, and journalism is no exception. The rapid development of AI opens up many opportunities for journalism to transform, improve quality, and enhance operational efficiency. However, AI also poses challenges for individual media organizations and journalists in deciding whether to rely on the technology for development or become dependent, gradually losing their creative and guiding roles.

Training courses on AI applications have been and are being widely implemented throughout Thai Nguyen province, including in media organizations.

Journalism needs AI.

First and foremost, in the context of information explosion and increasingly rapid dissemination, journalism needs AI as a tool to process, filter, and analyze data effectively. AI algorithms are capable of gathering information from multiple sources, detecting public opinion trends, and thereby helping reporters and editors to tailor content more appropriately, accurately, and quickly.

AI also assists journalism in automating several news production processes, such as: compiling short news snippets, translation, spell and grammar checking, and analyzing reader behavior. This saves time, improves work efficiency, and allows journalists to focus on in-depth content, investigation, and analysis.

Master's degree holder Duong Vinh Thien shared his insights on AI with journalists.

Mr. Duong Vinh Thien, Head of Information Technology Department (Digital Center - Thai Nguyen University): For local media outlets like Thai Nguyen province, AI is a powerful tool in enhancing content production capabilities, especially digital content. AI helps local media agencies compete better with social media by optimizing content, personalizing reader experiences, and distributing information effectively.

The opportunities AI offers for journalism.

One of the biggest opportunities AI offers is its ability to improve content quality. With AI tools, journalists can access and analyze vast amounts of data to identify key issues, verify information quickly, and uncover valuable stories. This contributes to the creation of high-quality, engaging, and insightful journalistic works.

AI also opens up opportunities to innovate the economic model of journalism, as tools such as chatbots to support customers, content recommendation systems based on reader habits, and personalized advertising recommendation technology help increase revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and other value-added services.

Furthermore, AI promotes the creation of innovative forms of expression, from print and online newspapers to multimedia journalism such as video , interactive graphics, and podcasts. In Thai Nguyen, with its diverse readership and high demand for local information, applying AI to create engaging media products that align with current trends and consumer preferences is essential.

AI is not a "master key".

As a midland and mountainous province with many unique socio-economic and cultural characteristics, Thai Nguyen has great potential for developing digital journalism, especially in forms that serve policy dissemination, tourism development, education, and high-tech agriculture.

100% of the staff, reporters, and editors of Thai Nguyen Newspaper participated in the training course on applying AI to journalistic production.

Accordingly, provincial media agencies should proactively update their technology early on, train their staff in AI skills, and cooperate with technology units inside and outside the province to develop solutions for digitizing content and exploiting local data more effectively. Hesitation or observing from afar without using AI in their professional work will lead to missed opportunities for journalists in Thai Nguyen province to work smarter, more creatively, and more closely with readers. This will also free up the labor of journalists and media workers by eliminating many steps in the traditional journalistic production process.

However, AI scholars and experts also affirm that this technology is not a "universal key" to replace the entire journalistic production process, especially in shaping public opinion, prioritizing propaganda, and other high-level journalistic requirements. The verification of information and data by AI cannot guarantee absolute accuracy because it is compiled from information sources on various platforms and repositories. Therefore, when leaders of media organizations, journalists, reporters, and editors use AI, they still need to carefully control information and data before publishing it.

By effectively leveraging AI, Thai Nguyen's press can rise to become not only the mouthpiece of the Party committee and government, and a forum for the local people, but also a powerful information bridge between the locality and the rest of the country and the world.

Journalist Do Doan Hoang, part-time lecturer at the Academy of Journalism and Communication: Personally, I remain proactive and creative in producing journalistic works, especially in the genres of feature stories and investigative journalism. However, AI is an inevitable trend of the times. Therefore, for Vietnamese journalism, this is both an opportunity to innovate and improve quality, and a challenge that must be adapted to survive and develop. For Thai Nguyen journalism, AI is not only a solution to the resource problem, but also a leverage to affirm its position, spread its identity, and promote local socio-economic development.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/tin-moi/202506/bao-chi-thoi-ai-thach-thuc-va-co-hoi-f762865/