AI Use in NH Local Newsrooms

AI in Local News: A Helping Hand, Not a Replacement

Newsrooms in New Hampshire and elsewhere are exploring how AI tools can support their work, but they're proceeding with caution. Clear guidelines are being established to ensure AI is not used to create articles or photos.

How AI is Being Used

Many journalists are using AI tools like Otter to transcribe interviews, saving time.
Some news outlets use AI to monitor public meetings they can't attend, helping them discover story ideas or sources.

Cautionary Tales

There have been instances where AI use in journalism has gone wrong. For example, the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer published a summer reading list with nonexistent books. The freelancer responsible admitted to using generative AI without fact-checking.

Jonathan Van Fleet, editor of the Concord Monitor, emphasized the importance of human oversight: “If you use AI, you have to have a human in the loop.” He notes that AI can improve efficiency but cannot replace human reporting, writing, editing, or fact-checking.

AI at The Laconia Daily Sun

Julie Hirshan Hart, editor at The Laconia Daily Sun, says that while formal AI policies are still in discussion, generative AI will not be used to write articles. Journalists have used AI to brainstorm headlines and photo captions, and there is consideration of automating tasks like formatting police logs.

Hirshan Hart believes AI can be a useful tool in brainstorming and writing but shouldn't replace a journalist's judgment, experience, or voice.

Concord Monitor's Approach

The Concord Monitor uses AI to enhance journalists' work. Van Fleet mentioned using AI to suggest URLs for better search results and converting large PDF documents into searchable formats.
“We're using the tool to help us do what we do faster and more efficiently,” he said. “But what we're not doing is saying, ‘Cover this meeting for us.’”

Transparency is Key

Van Fleet stressed the need for news outlets to be transparent about their AI usage, especially as AI content becomes more common. The Monitor has published its AI policy on its website, requiring staff to disclose AI use and ensuring that AI-generated information is vetted by a human reporter or editor.

The policy states that AI tools improve efficiency by suggesting headlines, summarizing stories, and organizing public information but are “not a replacement for human judgment, reporting or editing.”

Van Fleet reiterated that they are not generating fake articles or using robots to cover local news. He assures readers that they will interact with human reporters who will quote them accurately, and readers can discuss stories with a human being.