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This post was NOT written by ChatGPT

Over the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT. I even asked it to write this article about how journalists could use ChatGPT and it spewed out 437 words on how it was a tool that could sift through vast amounts of information to uncover the truth. It even created fake story lines about make-believe journalists who used it to report stories that never happened. In short, a fairy tale.

Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT learn grammar, syntax, semantics, and even some level of reasoning and context to mimic human speech and communications. They suck up existing information on the internet and regurgitate it according to the question you pose.

And we all know information on the internet is true, don’t we?

If there’s a data void, ChatGPT will usually not answer a question by saying it does not know the answer, but it will make up an answer. Unless you are extremely specific—I asked it “what is the future of land use in Cooperstown, Wisconsin” and it did reply As of my last update, I don’t have access to information about the specific future developments or plans for land use in Cooperstown, WI.

The reality is most journalists are in the business of reporting new information (hence the term “news”). If they’re local reporters, chances are the internet data dump does not have the latest info on the workings of a local school board or a common council or a court proceeding.

So will ChatGPT supplant local journalism? The reality is scooping information off the internet cannot be trusted. We will still need reporters and editors to vet information, double check sources, or to present the human impact of the news.

Just ask ChatGPT—it’ll tell you that AI models “may not be able to fully replace local news.” At least that much is true.

The real pandemic: media hype

There’s no cure. There’s no vaccination. There are no protective measures—short of unplugging.

I’ve been asked by my clients why the media is in a feeding frenzy over COVID-19 and it all boils down to click bait. Editors are crafting tittilating headlines and updates to get you to click on a tweet that takes you to their website. It’s all about social media hits, web traffic and trending topics—editorial judgement be damned.

And it all starts at the top—networks and legacy journalism platforms are feeding the fever. This morning the first 15 minutes of the network news was pandemic centered, and in broadcast news 15 minutes is an eternity. Then it trickles down to local media outlets who are scouring their markets for people related to those in quarantine, residents cancelling cruises, businesses grounding their workforce, and schools shutting down.

Why? A few reasons:

Consumers have a 140-character attention span. If a news story requires you to invest time to read, understand, and contemplate content, it won’t make the editorial cut. A school referendum will have more long-range consequences for a community, but tax levies can be complicated and few reporters have the creativity to actually tell a story (Storytelling: the new buzz of 2020 that’s actually been around for decades in newsrooms). It’s easier to click on a headline about cancelling cruises than read about how schools are funded.
Fear is sexy. When media outlets leave with you with more questions than answers, you will access their platforms more frequently to stay updated.
Editorial judgement has been replaced by trending stories. Editorial judgment means experienced journalists would consider all the issues on any one day, then select those that had the biggest impact on their audience, the potential for future impact, or topics that were unusual (read “man bites dog). Now, content editors first check social media for trending topics and use that to guide how stories are selected and which ones get the most play. The social media habits of people clicking on the Kardashians are influencing what is “news” in our local communities.

I would never advocate ignoring social platforms as communications channels—they are here to stay just as TV was in the 1950s. But somewhere in this frenzy perhaps objective reporting could give us a wider perspective. Perhaps editorial staffs could remember that citizens learn little if all media does is parrot the flavor of the day.

Perhaps the best news out of this issue is the federal government may delay April 15 tax filings. Think that’ll make the Twitter feed?

So how are those staff cuts working for ya?

My network of reporter/editor friends got some great chuckles out of recent gaffes in regional papers. Nothing entertains a bunch of journalists like implied (or actual) swear words in 36 point type. When you traffic in the printed or spoken word, mistakes are part of the landscape.

Usually an editor reviews final copy before it hits production or the air. Veteran journalists are fairly trustworthy when writing copy or headlines. But that’s just the problem—there aren’t many veteran journalists left.

In the last months, print newsrooms across the country have been slashed to the bone with budget cuts. Staffers with seniority and higher wages based on experience and ability have been trimmed from the balance sheet—along with their institutional knowledge. We can argue the failing business model of newspapers all day long and blame everything on the internet, but there’s a bigger issue here.

Trust me on this: you WANT experienced journalists on the job if only to perform their most important function as a watchdog. That’s an old-fashioned term that has a lot of modern implications.

In your busy life, will you ever attend a city council meeting? Do you have time to sit through floor debate at the legislature? Do you know your elected officials, your zoning committee or your school board personally?

You want a reporter at these meetings questioning why legislation is being proposed. You want a reporter asking why a zoning variance is being granted to a developer. You need a reporter following policy changes that could affect your childrens’ schools.

Journalists are trained to be the fourth estate—the unofficial branch of the government that monitors the political process to ensure the players don’t abuse the democratic process. That means they watch, they listen, they ask questions. But now there are fewer on the street asking those questions.

Journalists are also bound by a code of ethics in their newsroom and answer to editors who verify sources, strive for objectivity and hold them accountable. Sure, you can always find out more on the internet, but it’s caveat emptor. How do you know the author has checked sources or even if the author is a real person? And with a nod to history, most web-based content is only slightly better than the yellow journalism of 1900.

I never thought I would see the day when a local TV newsroom has more feet on the ground than the local paper. But that day is here.

If you’re interested, find me at mkathrynschmidt@gmail.com.

Your talkin’ English, an’ so?

So English is officially our official language and I think it’s a GREAT idea. In fact, I think it’s so great; all red-blooded American citizens who’ve been in this country for several generations should step up and do their part to actually learn their language. As I see it, there are two issues with English as our official language—one is based in our past; the other is based in our future.

I’m from Mi’waukee (if you’re a native you never pronounce the “l.”) Truth: I’ve asked someone to “come by me once” and my mother asked me to “reach me down the diapers from the top shelf, once.”

When I followed my husband “up nort” I learned an affirmative was “oh, yaaaaah” and punctuated by “fer da crie!” I got used to it when we stopped at a friend’s house for “one, two, tree beeres” but was confused when she ended every sentence with “an’ so?” Until someone told me she was saying “and so” I thought she had recently lived in Germany.

Now add the Dutch, Norwegian, Belgian, and Polish into the mix and the mother tongue becomes even more muddied. And I wonder how it will affect the future.

Our new lingo is fueled by speed and designed for iPads and cell phone keypads. And it’s trickling into tweets, texts, Vimeo and more.

Be becomes B, why becomes Y, see turns into C, okay is K, and two, to and too are all 2. Is it enough that most people interchange your and you’re but in our new shorthand ur is the rule?

We’ve moved from a world where we read the printed word to a world where we listen to it. And we don’t make much time to do either. In business, we ask WIIFM and request to have items EOD before TGIF.

So if you combine the new cyberslang with our Wisconsin dialect, do you get statements like: “CUL8R for beers, once?”

The English language is richly beautiful because it borrows and changes words from different cultures, new immigrants and emerging trends. It will continue to evolve. But we have to remember that you can’t learn to improvise until you first learn the melody, so learn English as a national language for everyone, not just new citizens.

G2G. K?

If you’re interested, find me at mkathrynschmidt@gmail.com.

Tornado, Ice and Storms: oh my!

Welcome to Spring in Wisconsin where a cocktail of ice, snow, rain and winds could knock us off the grid at any time.

Most businesses don’t consider man-made or natural disasters in their annual planning, but ignore at your own peril. Not only do we live in a world of instant business, we live in a world of instant news. If disaster hits your business, there’s a good chance it will be on a media website or blog before you notify your employees or key customers.

The people who are in the business of covering disasters have crisis plans in place. When 9/11 stopped Americans in their tracks, most newsrooms across the country had “plan A” and “plan B” in place and put reporters and editors on 24/7 call. When storms hit, local TV stations are live from multiple locations immediately. The media is ready to cover you if you are the center of a disaster—are you as ready as the media?

The worst time to plan for a crisis is when you’re knee deep in one. There are a few common sense things to plan for—and a few things you might not readily think of.

Define your crisis: Before an emergency hits, determine what types of crises require you be ready for media response. Tornadoes and fires are an easy call—but does a robbery or an employee theft warrant a full-scale crisis response?

Prepare your team: Identify a first response team, usually key executives in your business and a communications or PR professional. If you don’t have PR counsel on staff, consider outsourcing this function during a crisis

Plan your communications: Determine what you will say to your employees, your customers and the media. Identify a spokesperson, but make sure all members of your crisis team are briefed.

Be up front with your team: Make certain all employees know where they can call or check in if there is a disaster so they can stay informed with factual, up-to-date information. In a disaster or crisis, a good reporter will not politely call the receptionist and leave a message for your spokesperson. A good reporter will wander around to the loading dock, start talking to your drivers, call surrounding business neighbors and put your janitor on camera. How do I know this is true? Because I did each one of these things to get a story.

I wouldn’t advocate adding a “disaster” column to your monthly spreadsheet, but a little pre-planning can avert some big problems. And for those of you who are still saying it’ll never happen here; just remember that Noah built the ark before it started to rain.

What does that “www” thing mean?

Hi, my name is Mary and I’m addicted to social media. The first step toward recovery is to admit your problem and I should have seen this coming about 100 posts ago. At least once a week someone tells me social media is a pointless waste of time. Some clients can’t imagine why anyone would spend time on a screen. Spousal Unit moaned in disgust when he found out I was taking pictures of myself and posting them to Facebook and Twitter to stave off boredom in the deer stand during a hunting season. Now, my hunting posts on Facebook are eagerly anticipated by clients and friends alike. Here’s what I have to say to them.

My 75-year old father has a Facebook page. That either makes him a hip adaptor or it makes Facebook terminally un-cool, but you can’t ignore it.

I’m showing my age, but as a TV reporter in the 80s, we laughed at the idea of 24-hour news on a cable network. What would they cover? In the early days of the internet, employers and clients told me no one would ever get product information on a screen much less write and send letters over a computer.

The idea behind social media is to connect, participate, discuss. No restrictions and opinions interpreted as news. Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect and I’ve found that people who make questionable decisions in other parts of their lives will do the same thing on social media. But like they say, you can pick your friends.