Does AI Have a Place in Journalism? We Want Your Opinion

Westword and our other Voice Media Group newsrooms are involved in a summer AI cohort. Led by Trusting News, the goal is to understand how readers feel about AI uses in journalism.

By Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek

July 21, 2024

As we develop our editorial AI policy, we want reader feedback. Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek

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For the record, this article wasn’t written by AI.

Voice Media Group – whose publications include Westword, Dallas Observer, Miami New Times and Phoenix New Times – was selected to participate in a summer news cohort led by Trusting News and the Online News Association.

The goal: to better understand how our readers feel about AI's role in journalism, and how we should notify you if we use AI in any step of our work. Take our survey to share your perspective with us.

All of the research we gather will be shared with the cohort to help guide our conversations; we'll also consider it as we develop our own editorial AI policy.

Ten other news organizations are participating in the cohort, including Texas Tribune, the Associated Press and USA TODAY Network. Our team – myself, audience development director Dallon Adams, and vice president of product and technology James Hamilton – meet weekly with the cohort to share findings and ideas, and in the process is developing a better understanding of how we want (or don’t want) to adopt AI in our workflow.

Let’s be clear: We don’t mean in our writing.

As AI develops, we’re doing our homework to identify tools that could make our journalistic process more efficient, such as writing SEO headlines, checking grammar or compiling listings. But however we could use AI, we would never use it without human review.

In addition to considering the results of the survey, we'll conduct interviews with readers in each of our newsroom communities about potential AI uses in our newsgathering and editorial process.

We’ve also been developing company policies on AI with other department leaders at Voice Media Group. We don’t have our editorial AI policy ready to share just yet but we will soon, and our work in this cohort will continue to shape this policy.

So, will you help shape our policies and use of AI by taking this survey?

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Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek has been the editorial director for Voice Media Group since January 2023. She oversees all editorial aspects of VMG’s publication websites (Westword, Dallas Observer, Miami New Times, and Phoenix New Times). She also leads VMG's audience development team with social media, SEO, and membership strategies. Chelsey has a bachelor's degree in journalism and media studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is based in Denver.

Contact: Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek

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