One of our newsroom traditions at The Columbian is to select our top local stories of the year, and use that to lead our big weekend edition closest to the end of the year. This year, that happened to be Saturday, Dec. 30.
The format doesn’t vary too much. We ask reporters to nominate the top stories from their beats, then editors look through and try to remember if anything is missing. Then we all vote for the stories we thought were the most important. Once we have that list, reporters write capsule summaries of the story, and an editor writes a short lead-in to introduce the package.
This year, just for fun, Managing Content Editor Erin Middlewood decided to see if artificial intelligence could write the lead-in. Using AI to write stories is currently a big topic in journalism. I am sure AI will find its place, but I am skeptical, and the results didn’t change my mind. The computer-generated summaries were too wordy, somewhat inaccurate and just plain weird. Here are some excerpts:
From Google Bard: “Homelessness took center stage in Clark County in 2022, rising from a pressing concern to a declared civil emergency. Despite a year of Safe Stay shelters, Community Court initiatives, and record-breaking bridge funding, the stark reality of the housing crisis remained a grim undercurrent to both triumphs and tragedies.”
From ChatGPT: “In a year that bore witness to shifting priorities and transformative events, the landscape of Clark County, Washington, underwent remarkable changes. Tackling a spectrum of challenges, from a declared civil emergency over homelessness to a historic health care strike, the region grappled with the complexities of modern society….” It blathered on for seven more paragraphs, but I will spare you!
One thing that stuck out to Erin was that both programs used a lot of adjectives. Good journalists try to avoid using a lot of adjectives, as they tend to be subjective and can color reporting. We want to report facts and actions. We try to use quotations well to help set the scene.
I am glad Erin tried the experiment. If and when the time comes that we start using AI-generated content, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.
Rethinking spot news
Journalists use a lingo to describe different kinds of stories. You’ve probably heard the term “breaking news,” which is news that is unfolding as it is reported, like the Japanese earthquake this week, where the first alerts were posted even as buildings still shook.
A very typical newspaper story is what we call spot news, which Merriam-Webster defines as “up-to-date immediately reported news.” A report from the Vancouver City Council’s latest meeting might be an example of spot news, or a story about a car crash or bank robbery.
With our change to all-mail delivery of our print edition, we might have to rethink how we treat this spot news. Reader Terry Prill spotted a brief in our Wednesday paper announcing a road closure to take place that day from 9 a.m. to noon. But, as Prill pointed out, many customers don’t get their mail until the afternoon. So why bother to print this spot news?
That prompted an interesting discussion at the morning news meeting. We all agreed, of course, that when possible, an item like that would go in the Tuesday print edition. But if we received it on short notice, which was the case here, should it even go in the paper?
My first thought was no, it should just go online and be left out of the print edition. But as we talked, we realized that maybe it should get printed. We have thousands of people who read our ePaper, the digital replica of our print edition, which goes live by 6 a.m. And, of course, some people get their mail early. So we’ll stick to our current practice, even if it is out of date for some.
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