Journalistic applications of Artificial Intelligence. Concept map, professional roles and developing trends in the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Abstract

The article offers a diagnosis of the current journalistic use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Specifically, it introduces its conceptual debate and details its main functions and professional trends in development in the context of Covid-19 information. Based on a bibliographic search in Web of Science with the terms Journalism and Artificial Intelligence, 90 publications are analyzed in order to review the academic production focused on the concepts of AI and journalism to know the predominant theme in the theoretical corpus in relation to three aspects: (1) the conceptual framework of AI and journalism, (2) the technology alluded to and the use made of AI in the information process, and (3) the journalistic trends to which it relates. The analysis also relates these uses and trends to the informative context of Covid-19.

The results show the clear irruption of AI in journalism, which has been approached by academia from different focuses, from the broadest ones that include it within high-tech journalism to others that focus on some of its aspects in a terminological debate that is still open. Content production is consolidating as the main entry point for these technologies in the development of journalistic functions, followed by their use for distribution and, lastly, for information gathering. Among the journalistic trends favored by AI, data journalism and verification journalism stand out, as evidenced in the coverage of Covid-19. The treatment of the pandemic also offers examples of the use of AI in all phases of journalism, from information gathering to content production and dissemination.