By Grace Kerongo
News Producer, Nairobi News
As I write this, at the back of my mind, I wonder if a well-written piece of Artificial Intelligence (AI) code can replace me in the newsroom. The answer is yes. We are in an era where technological advancements are coming in hard and fast.
At the moment, AI tools can write breaking news stories and publish them in minutes. Now, the question is, what is your role and space in the face of such advancements? What is the role of journalism in the digital era? What do we, as journalists, need to do to avoid becoming obsolete in the face of AI and Machine Learning and shifting audience preferences?
Here are the skills, tips, and choices you should make.
Upskilling: For skills, log onto the 1001 websites offering free courses on digital skills, data analytics, social media communication, design, mobile video editing, and even coding.
It does not hurt to learn a new skill. Gone are the days when all you needed as a journalist was a pen and paper.
Now you need to learn how to edit audio and video and write a witty post to promote your story to the masses online.
The skills will keep you relevant to the audiences and, in turn, will help you understand their needs based on data analytics.
Use the tools: The second thing you need to do as a journalist is to learn how to use free online tools that will cut your content production time by half.
Some tools include writing apps like Grammarly, photo editing software, video editing apps, transcription tools, OCR apps, and fact-checking tools. All these free tools are available to turn you into a lean and mean news machine. They reduce the turnaround time you will spend processing content or verifying it.
You may opt not to use the tools, saying you are hardwired to stick to the old way of doing stuff but what that does is delay you from getting to point X, which you would have arrived at sooner with the tools and expended much less effort.
Also, learning to use the tools makes you a multimedia digital journalist because you can edit audio and video, design a poster, and bang out copy faster.
That is the quintessential definition of lean and mean.
Be open-minded: The third aspect you need to survive in journalism in this era is to be open-minded. The media business has been disrupted. It is not business as usual. It will never be business as usual ever again.
If you, as a journalist, have not yet to internalise this fact, extinction is knocking at your door. Innovate or die.
Choose to embrace the change brought about by digital disruption. That is how you will learn and grow.
The media space will change a great deal in the years to come. Some jobs in the newsroom and PR may be obsolete, and new exciting jobs will be created in the big bang of the digital explosion.