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Emerging Journalism Pratice: Artificial Intelligence and Science
Submitted by escs on 16 April 2024
Scientific area

EMJ

Media and Journalism

Hours
3
ECTS
5
Responsible teacher
Teachers who teach
Objectives

This unit proposes an in-depth reflection on practices in the production of news content, resulting from the impact of the latest technological developments and new global geopolitical scenarios. The aim is that students understand the scale of this impact and acquire the critical spirit necessary to position themselves in the adoption of these new practices. There will be two modules:

1. Artificial Intelligence
1.1. understanding the role of the implementation of AI tools in newsrooms and the basic concepts of Generative AI models (LLMs), demystifying them and transforming them into knowledge that is accessible and applicable to the fundamental principles of information creation inside and outside the journalism ecosystem.
1.2 Understand the role of AI in the production of written and visual content (in production, research, editing, confirmation of sources, etc.); identify where it is already being used and what difficulties it can create; identify best practices for obtaining the best results with this type of tool. Using case study examples that describe real situations and enable students to face complex problems, the aim is for them to be able to make strategic decisions that benefit their role as a creator of reliable and attractive information for audiences.

2. Journalism and Science
2.1. understanding how the current geopolitical framework has given the dissemination of information on science a pivotal role in the balance and stability of current societies. Through practical cases, students will explore the best practices for disseminating information on scientific topics (technology, health, ecology, etc.), get to know how science itself works in order to be able to work towards its dissemination (e.g. how scientific knowledge is generated; how does scientific publication and peer review works; how can a journalist use scientific articles and search/verify sources among researchers, etc.).
2.2. Understand the role of science journalism also as an important precursor of data journalism, not only by exploring good practices in data analysis including the use of AI tools, but also by working on concepts of information design (written and visual) capable of disseminating information about science that is attractive and does not risk being appropriated as false information.