By Andrew Chatterton
There has been a lot of debate on these pages recently discussing the rise of technology over people (Terminator 4: Rise Of The PR Machines/ PR is Dead, Part 63), and it appears that this continuing threat has now affected a profession that previously seemed untouchable…journalism!
The recent news of a US business information outfit replacing some of the tasks done by its journalists with computers will undoubtedly send shock waves across newsrooms throughout the country. Financial journalists are first in the ‘firing line’ as new software can turn around an earnings story within 0.3 seconds of a company making its results public!
This will surely be a threat to all journalists, not just financial hacks. As software intelligence increases, it’s feasible that any type of press release could be turned into an article before you can say ‘copy and paste’.
Indeed could we see chief executives briefing some sophisticated software and a laptop over lunch at Claridges? Newsrooms filled only with PCs and one techy to see to the needs of these next generation journalists? Or maybe even software that has the ability to scan blogs and automatically turn them into news stories? One for Charles Arthur to ponder on perhaps…
Thomson Financial, the company involved, stated to the FT that the technology
“…means we can free up reporters so they have more time to think”, what they are thinking about is not specified, but almost certainly involves what direction their new career path may now take.
Although not one to scaremonger, I think I’m right in saying that on other occasions when new technology has threatened jobs, riots have spread throughout the country, resulting in hundreds of people killed or injured. Admittedly, the thought of journalists running through the streets with pitchforks and torches destroying technology – as the Luddites did during the Industrial Revolution – is a little far fetched (although having met some hacks, perhaps not unthinkable), but it is worth remembering the price of progress.
Thomson admits that for the moment the technology can only cope with fairly basic earnings reports and is therefore no real threat to journalists. But I imagine something fairly similar was said to workers in the wool mills as the power looms were wheeled through the factory gates!
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