Narrative journalism isn't dead, despite the surge of AI 'slop' content
Plus: A big media watchers newsletter and website merger + lessons from Canada on how local media can be supported
Good afternoon,
And happy Wednesday - and into May we go too. This year is really whizzing by. It's cliché, but it generally is. I find with two kids now that life definitely moves faster - maybe it's how fast those little feet run!
This week's What I've Been Reading Digest there's a bit on AI, a bit on how local government and organisations could strengthen local media and a big media watchers merger too.
The decade of slop content - Andrew Phelps - a deliberately provocative post, no doubt, but it's interesting about how much of AI-driven content, or AI-direct content, is pretty bland. This built felt crucial to me...
That doesn’t mean narrative journalism is dead, nor trust or rigor. It means newsrooms will have to figure out how to explain their special value—not just to humans, but machines.
So showing where a human has been involved in the making of the content is crucial - be that through personality, the way it's written, the way it's filmed, the way it's presented.
And quality let's be clear means ensuring content is original, written to be read (easily and well) and is understandable to an audience.
I guess that was a small part in our thinking when on Friday we gave some politicians some questions in the wake of the local elections - you can see the back of my head in the camera, you can hear the questions being asked.
That helps build trust, authenticity and proof it's not been doctored by AI-agents. You can see them on YouTube.
Fostering a healthy democracy through support for a local journalism: A toolkit for municipal leaders - Ink Stained Wretches - this is from Canada but a really interesting toolkit that is presented to those in political power there of local organisations (Mayors, City Hall leaders etc). Canada has seen far more headwinds when it comes to bite-back from Meta over demands it coughs up over content usage, and so this pack is aimed at encouraging those big local organisations to spend a portion of their budgets with locally-based media organisations, those that are embedded within the community and to ensure they are advocating for a free and connected local media with some very actionable ways. Thanks to Francois Nel for sharing.
Flashes & Flames merger with Media Voices: Plans for new media information services and events - Media Voices - the Flashes and Flames newsletter has a very strong following, as does Media Voices, and they will be combining to bring together their insights and expertise in one offering. We'll see how it develops, but if you're not already, it's well worth subscribing to and following both outlets.
That’s all for the digest this week - it’s a brief one as playing catch up after a very busy local elections here in the UK and Lancashire. It saw us set a new record for views in a day on Blog Preston in our 16 year history. I’ll write more fully-formed next week about that and some learnings from it.
Hope you’re having a great week, thanks for subscribing and hope as always these prove useful and interesting links to browse and share. Anything you think I’m missing, drop me a line on ed@almaonline.co.uk and happy to consider for inclusion.
Keep going.
Ed