New Skills for the Next Generation of Journalists
2017-1-HU01-KA203-036038
The rapid growth of voice activate technology hasn’t been translated into interest in news consumption on these devices, as pointed out by several reports. Content development for smart speakers and voice assistants still faces many challenges in what regards consumption and production.
Human’s first tool for communication was speech, writing emerged very recently in human history. But in what regards the history of internet, first came writing and then it came sound.
The first voice recognition tool, IBM Shoebox, was created in 1961 and only recognized 16 words and digits. But the potential of these kind of developments was acknowledged and in the following decades other companies made progress in word recognition.
Although the “big leap” only arrived in the first decade of the 21st century, with Apple's launch of Siri in 2011. From then on, these voice tools gained the definition of voice assistants, as they were able to listen, respond and perform tasks through voice command. Since then, voice assistants became popular and easily accessible to the population.
There are 8 billion people in the world, around 66% have a smartphone, and most of them use a device with Android or IOS, so they have access to the usage of voice assistants. According to some surveys, considering all the devices, 45% of the Internet users worldwide use voice commands and voice search. And where do news stand in this picture?
Voice assistants and news
We cannot separate the discussion about voice assistant devices for news from the one about AI in the newsrooms, either in reporting, producing, or distributing news. This requires training, resources, and a wide ethical debate.
One of the first companies to experiment with the use of Artificial Intelligence through voice assistants was “The Evening Standard” in London, in 2017. That same year, BBC launched, in partnership with Amazon, their first full voice skill for Alexa. The following year “The Guardian” launched, together with Google, the Guardian Voice Lab.
The usage of voice-activated speakers has been growing, but, as some reports suggest, news usage remains disappointing, as the proportion using smart speakers for news is declining, at the same time devices become more mainstream. Less than four in ten access news via their device in the US (35%) and UK (39%), and just a quarter in Germany (27%) and South Korea (25%), according to the Digital News Report 2019. This from the consumption side.
As Google and Amazon look to provide more aggregated news services in voice it is likely that platforms will play an increasingly important role in this area. But a question still stands, are publishers interested in investing in new news services, building value for platforms without any path to self-monetization?
Platform power is likely to become an increasingly important issue for publishers over the next years as Google and Amazon look to provide more aggregated news services in voice. But many publishers may not be interested to invest in new services, building value for platforms without any path to self-monetisation. It is becoming more common to find research to explore the ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help communication professionals find and tell better stories.
Media outlets know how to safely develop products to be shown on TV, listened on radio, or read on Internet websites. But what is the best news product to be activated by voice assistants? How to present your news stories to be considered relevant and to appear as the first search result of these voice assistants?
The challenge of voice search
The adoption of artificial intelligence in newsrooms, either in reporting, production, or distribution of content, requires training, resources, and ethical debate. Training journalists and editors in general concepts related to artificial intelligence and subsequently in specific technical skills is crucial to promote an organizational culture open to the use of this technology.
Algorithms are fundamental in voice assistants’ companies. Although search by voice works in a different way than search in writing. When someone searches by writing in a search engine a list with several hyperlinks for websites appears. The algorithm defines a list of hyperlinks, and the reader has the option to choose from all the options that appear on the various results pages. But in the case of smart speakers, voice assistants would take a long time to present the same results. So, what happens is that the algorithm defines a single result for the user.
So, using voice adds new layers of complexity: we tend to speak in unstructured text. One of the things that makes resolution especially complicated for a large AI system like Alexa is that different Alexa services use different names — or slots — for the same data. Also, as voice interfaces proliferate in people’s lives, publishers and other organizations face a new strategic consideration: Is our content optimized for voice search? And, looking further into the future, how should we index our content for future forms of interaction? A new marketing area is already growing. Voice Search Optimization (VSO) is the new Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as companies will need to consider how their content is delivered via conversational interfaces.
Big challenges to surpass
There area lot of questions in what regards the use and content production for voice activated devices, but experiences are being made, and the interested in the field is growing, consistently.
Still there are big questions on what to do, how to do it and how to solve major language barriers and problems.
There are difficulties to identify the best kind of content, how to interact with users and how to monetize the contents are obvious. But the differences in consumption through voice interfaces, compared with the written interaction on other media channels, are also a big challenge to master by producers. In terms of knowledge and skills needed to work in this field, the specialists point to a solid background in communication, but with applied skills in multimedia production, some technological expertise, and intense digital media use.
Ethics and privacy are also up to discussion.
But the way is being paved for the development of this area, and understanding it’s value and potential is of crucial importance for journalism.
The full reports of the study are available within the NEWSREEL2 research report.
This article was written by Ana Pinto-Martinho, Miguel Crespo and Wanessa Andrade (ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon).
Photo: Pixabay
