Will a smart robot occupy the tables and offices of journalists and retire them?
A question that does not escape the mind of any worker in the media field, when reviewing the in-depth survey prepared by the Saudi researcher Nayef Marzouq Al-Mutairi, on the future of using artificial intelligence in the media content industry in Saudi media institutions.
The study answered the question by emphasizing that the use of robots in the international press, in its various forms, showed its seriousness in dealing with news, investigation and investigation, and Al-Mutairi relies in his conclusion on a study prepared in 2018 AD, that the robot will have decisiveness and separation in newsrooms and sorting between real and fake news .. The regular reader does not, in most cases, differentiate between true and misleading false news!
Dozens of experts and those interested in media affairs participated in the huge questionnaire prepared by Al-Mutairi, to complete the requirements for obtaining a master’s degree at the College of Media and Human Sciences at King Saud University, and media, technology and digitization experts contributed with deep analysis and professional requirements in reviewing the future of artificial intelligence in Saudi media content, and the researcher focused In the survey study on the fruits of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA), which opened wide horizons for the digitization of life, in an approach that is in line with Vision 2030, and its mission towards the future.
The overall research study concluded that “the use of artificial intelligence in media content is limited,” and the researcher and experts have their objective reasons for that. However, the objective reasons for the limitations did not ignore the solutions and treatments that push the content into the world of the intelligence industry.
In his study, Al-Mutairi raises a number of questions about: To what extent are Saudi media organizations prepared for artificial intelligence technologies, the factors that lead to their success, the fields of their employment, and the difficulties that the industry may face..
The answer to the questions raised leads directly to knowing the extent of the media institutions’ ability to deal with the technologies in the content industry that are undertaken by professional media professionals and specialized practitioners. In the researcher’s opinion, artificial intelligence contributes a great deal to detecting misleading news, collecting data, developing human resources, and producing automated content. And their interaction: “Reporting editors are still deciding what story to develop, and algorithms are completing the task with the image that grabs the reader’s attention.”
The survey concluded that artificial intelligence helps editors in newsrooms by telling more stories, but it will not replace the journalist.. Humans are the maker of intelligence, but this does not contradict the fact that newsrooms will almost completely depend on artificial intelligence in the next decade.
13 media organizations in depth survey
The researcher refers to a questionnaire analysis prepared in 2020 in Egyptian media institutions, which concluded that the levels of this industry are low by 34.2%, non-use by 33.6%, use at a high average rate of 26.6, and a high of 5.6%.. It is remarkable in the study that 88% of journalists, experts and professionals are aware of A conviction of the need to comprehensively expand the use of artificial intelligence in the content industry. In his survey study, Al-Mutairi relied on the testimonies of more than 13 media and press institutions, including bodies concerned with content, as well as leaders and experts in the media industry, as he received about 90 answers from them about the future of using artificial intelligence in the media content industry in Saudi Arabia. Employment, difficulties, success factors, required skills in journalists and future achievements. And 61.1% of the survey samples saw the utmost importance of using artificial intelligence in the content, 30.0% considered it important, and 8.9% considered it somewhat important.
They fear losing their professional status!
Regarding the difficulties facing the use of artificial intelligence in content, the survey indicated the small number of specialists, the modest training and qualification, the absence of institutional recognition, the high cost of technologies and work mechanisms that do not adapt to change, the low quality of data, and the fear of losing professional status, and with these difficulties and challenges However, Saudi media institutions are keen to employ artificial intelligence for several factors and reasons, including: improving the efficiency of professionals, increasing the efficiency of institutions, promoting a closer level with recipients, and achieving information security. Providing accurate news services, enhancing competitiveness, intensifying breaking news, developing media professionals’ skills and devoting them to their tasks, reducing operating costs and ensuring work stability.
Reduce time and money
The field study yielded results and recommendations. Among them is the strict emphasis on the use of artificial intelligence in media content, and experts considered this to reduce costs and work time, support credibility, intelligent access to the audience, create diverse and unique content, and improve quality. Creating partnerships with specialized agencies in artificial intelligence, training and qualifying media professionals, encouraging innovation and creativity, developing university educational curricula that stimulate the learning of artificial intelligence, qualifying a new generation of journalists with the ability to deal with technology and technology, creating an incubator and specialized platforms for youth, establishing a technology academy, and employing Data journalism in digital and television reports.
Who qualifies to employ intelligence?
What are the criteria for a journalist who is qualified to use artificial intelligence in content? Al-Mutairi answers, based on the comprehensive survey and says: The conditions are the ability to manage accounts and distribute content on platforms, the skill of collecting, auditing and monitoring information, the ability to conduct comprehensive journalistic research, and the evaluation of data assets The content, and among the criteria also critical thinking skills, the skill of using live broadcast via mobile phone video.
Scarce initiatives.. no institutional work
Researcher Nayef Al-Mutairi conducted interviews with specialists in media and artificial intelligence, and asked them axes about their assessment of media performance in relation to artificial intelligence, the role assigned to institutions in this regard, future gains and their proposals.
Experts believe that the amazing development in information has greatly affected media institutions and the content industry that helped produce, review, draft news and articles, and produce stories, graphics, and reminders of events that can be followed up. Experts believe that the use of artificial intelligence is currently limited in media institutions, and some of them are currently groping their way to this step because they are not qualified at the present time for this shift, but this does not negate the dependence of some of them on intelligence in the fields of sports, economics, graphic use, and others, and media experts and artificial intelligence specialists agree on The existence of a large gap between media practices and the use of intelligence in the content industry, as the use of blockchain and journalistic robots remains very limited, which is now taking place as individual initiatives rather than being sustainable institutional work, despite the presence of many digital transformations in the media landscape worldwide, which is observed according to the opinions of experts. , that many institutions are now operating in a traditional way. The most important dimension in employing artificial intelligence is content marketing, measuring audience reactions, identifying its characteristics and trends, and accurate drawing of it in aspects of age, nature, gender, and educational level. Attractive advertising material, and these institutions can become producers and manufacturers of information and thus maximize their revenues, and this cannot be achieved if media institutions adhere to the familiar traditional form.
Media organizations employing artificial intelligence
35.6% to some extent
22.2% with a weak degree, 20.0% with a great degree
13.3%, very much
8.9% are not employed
Current uses of artificial intelligence
news production
Connect information
Fact check
Fake news detection
Convert text to speech
Machine translation of languages
Automated chat
Video analysis
Image recognition
Correct spelling errors
