🎙️ Lessons from "AI and the Future of News 2026"
Hello! I’ve been catching up on the "AI and the Future of News 2026" conference, which was hosted on March 17 by the Reuters Institute (https://www.youtube.com/live/3r4grJ5zwSQ?si=7U5Y9_sH-4dL4fdd).
A couple of insights from the event really stood out for how we should be thinking about our daily prompting workflows without "infoploding".
1. The Fieldwork Reality Check
Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi from the Colonist Report delivered a timely reminder about where our true value lies:
"AI cannot give you data that is not already available. That's why I tell journalists that AI cannot take your job – because you can go to the field"
The Prompting Takeaway: Stop asking AI to act as a search engine or fact-gatherer. Go to the field, get the hard data, and use your prompts to interrogate and structure the raw information you bring back.
2. The Power of Text Transformation
Chris Moran from The Guardian pointed out that while we must remain highly skeptical of AI outputs, the tech is genuinely great at transforming things that are already well-structured, like an article you've just finished writing. He noted that transforming your own journalism into an "easy-read" framework gives you much more confidence that the AI won't "mangle the journalism".
How to apply this today:
Use AI to safely maximize the reach of the reporting you've already done. Here is an easy-to-adapt prompt you can use to turn a complex story into an accessible format for broader audiences:
đź’ˇ Prompt: The 'Easy-Read' Transformer
"Act as a digital news editor. Take the following article I have reported and transform it into an 'easy-read' version. Your constraints:
1. Keep sentences short (mostly short-long-short structure) and direct.
2. Remove or explain any industry jargon.
3. CRITICAL: Rely strictly on the provided text. Do not add ANY outside information, context, or facts that are not explicitly stated in my text.
Here is the article: [Paste your text here]"
The goal here isn't just using AI because everyone else is; it's about sharper thinking, stronger journalism and stretching the lifespan of your original reporting.