Digital transformation, application of artificial intelligence in journalism "must do instead of talk"

Mr. Le Quoc Minh: We are also making noise about the story of artificial intelligence, some are excited and some are worried. It can be affirmed that artificial intelligence is now an almost mandatory part of newsrooms. Newsrooms in Vietnam use it less, but according to the latest statistics, 75% of newsrooms in the world have used more or less artificial intelligence tools.

When talking about artificial intelligence, many people think of machines writing articles instead of humans. But artificial intelligence has a much broader meaning.

Artificial intelligence has been applied very strongly in many press agencies in many ways for a long time, now evolving to a higher level. That is, it is possible to write an essay, compose a poem, write an article. In particular, users can give commands simply like giving commands to people with each other. These are the steps of artificial intelligence that will become more popular in newsrooms.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh: There will be opinions that if machines do that, where is the role of humans? Will it cause journalists to lose their jobs?

I would like to affirm that, at least in the foreseeable future, machines will only stop at supporting humans to do heavy, meticulous, detailed, repetitive work. As for creative, original content, machines today cannot do it.

President of Vietnam Journalists Association

Machines today write articles and images based on information already available on the internet, not creating completely new content. Therefore, this threat to the creative work of journalists is not yet present.

As for letting machines write their own articles, the latest research shows that this trend is there but newsrooms should consider it carefully. Because, according to surveys, readers will demand that any content written by machines be labeled to distinguish the difference between flesh-and-blood journalists. But, more importantly, if news organizations use a lot of articles written by machines, users' trust in those news organizations will decrease.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh: It must be affirmed that the saying “content is king” is never wrong. If the content is good, users will read, watch, and listen to it. This is an “unchangeable” thing. However, in an environment where there is too much information, too dense, not to mention fake, bad, toxic, and misleading information flooding the market like today, the content must be different, creating content that attracts users more.

However, in the context of so many sources of information, even good information has to compete with other social media platforms. If there are no technological measures to bring your content to the "target", the possibility of your content being read is very low.

If you do not know, do not grasp, are not good at technology, you cannot bring your information to the people you want. Because, with many readers, the newspaper will be known by everyone, have a position and can create a source of income. Therefore, in the current context, grasping technology is extremely important and certainly technology must be a very important part of journalism activities.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh: Technological trends can be temporary or can support the newsroom. Therefore, each newsroom needs to carefully consider investing in technology based on its capabilities, goals, and human resources.

Although technology application is mandatory, choosing the right technology is also a matter to consider. It is important to prepare the human resources to be able to deploy new methods and technologies in the future.

In addition to core skills, today’s journalists also need to be equipped with new skills. Older experienced journalists who do not grasp technology need to be supported by a team of younger journalists or technology staff.

In particular, technological skills will become almost mandatory for young journalists. Therefore, journalists must be equipped with a set of soft skills to be flexible so that they can adapt to new things that happen tomorrow.

Mr. Le Quoc Minh: If any press agency's leaders understand technology, the digital transformation process will be strongly supported and the results achieved can increase by 30-40% compared to other press agencies.

Leaders do not need to be technology experts but need to understand that applying and adopting technology is necessary and must be pioneers in promoting technology.

The leader plays a very important role. When the leader is determined to change the whole organization in a new direction, the efficiency will be higher. The spirit of digital transformation must be spread to all departments and individuals.

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