Science journalists play a key role in delivering information about artificial intelligence (AI) and its (potential) impact on society to a wider audience. At the same time, developments in AI also impact how science journalists do their work.
Colloquium by Anouk de Jong and Anne Dijkstra
The first part of this talk will focus on how the impact of AI gets represented in science journalism, drawing on two studies. In the first study we identified how the concepts of autonomy, bias, explainability, fairness, responsibility, risk and common sense were mentioned in Dutch newspaper articles about AI (see De Jong & Dijkstra, 2024). Focusing on discussions about AI and common sense offered a new perspective on how news articles describe the impact of AI on society, especially in relation to the concepts of autonomy, responsibility and risk. The second study included a content analysis of newspaper articles about AI from Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain (see Dijkstra et al., 2024). We found that most of these newspaper articles had a positive sentiment and included information about the impact of AI on society, with three articles also mentioning AIs impact on journalism.
The second part of this talk will focus on the impact of AI on science journalism, drawing on interviews we conducted with 16 science and technology journalists from Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain (see Dijkstra et al., 2024). The interviewees were asked about their experiences with covering and using AI in their work and how they expected AI would influence their work in the future. In all countries, developments in AI are expected to impact science journalism and the quality of reporting, but this process is still in the early stages. Journalists expect that AI might help them by taking over repetitive tasks and by improving accessibility of sources and news articles. However, journalists worry that AI may negatively impact their work through a lack of transparency, risks of misinformation and negative ethical implications.
We conclude that the impact of AI on society has already received much attention in science journalism, but the impact of AI on the practice of science journalism is still in its beginning stages. We recommend further reflection from researchers and science journalists on the impact of continuous developments in AI.
References:
De Jong, A., & Dijkstra, A. M. (2024). Associations of AI and common sense in the news. In M. W. Bauer & B. Schiele (Eds.), AI and Common Sense: Ambitions and Frictions. Routledge.
Dijkstra, A. M., de Jong, A., & Boscolo, M. (2024). Quality of science journalism in the age of Artificial Intelligence explored with a mixed methodology. PLoS ONE, 19(6 June), Article e0303367. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303367
Short bios of speakers:
Anouk de Jong is a PhD candidate in Science Communication at the University of Twente. She studies interactions between researchers and journalists, focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and developments in artificial intelligence on science journalism. She has a background in communication science and philosophy of science, technology and society. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-2419
Dr. Anne M. Dijkstra is an associate professor in Science Communication. She studies the changing relationship between science, technology, and society from a communication perspective. Her research focuses on the roles of the public as well as researchers and other stakeholders in this relationship, and is related to new and emerging technologies. Recently, she set up the Research Centre for Science Communication & Public Engagement at the University of Twente. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1699-5087
