Machine generated journalism

The media coverage of last week’s General Election saw an unprecedented use of machine generated journalism.

Machine generated journalism has been used for some time in reporting on sports results, and is generally recognised as freeing up journalists to cover more interesting and complex stories.  However, some argue that it endangers thought provoking, analytical reporting by squeezing already tight media and broadcasting budgets.

The BBC’s coverage of the 2019 General Election implemented machine generated journalism to provide a story for each and every constituency that declared Thursday night by using technology to analyse data and provide a summary of the election results for that constituency.  Whilst it is recognised that none of these stories contained any quotes, or lacked a human touch, it is clear that we will continue to see the increased use of this in reporting as technology advances.  This of course raises a number of questions, not least how tech will safe guard against fake news.

Stuart is one of our legal tech experts, specialising in corporate and commercial law.