News in Overdose of Technology? Slow Journalism as a Response

Deodato Salafia
Nov 17, 2024
5 min read

The evolution of journalism has never been separate from technological progress. Gutenberg’s printing press, telegraphy, and, more recently, the Internet have redefined the production and consumption of news. However, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new media is introducing changes of an unprecedented scale, raising questions about how the journalistic ecosystem can preserve its core values of accuracy, transparency, and responsibility.

AI presents itself as a double-edged sword for contemporary journalism: on one hand, it offers innovative tools to enhance data collection and analysis; on the other, it poses real risks to professional ethics.

AI as a Driver of Innovation

Francesco Marconi, in the book Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism, illustrates how AI-powered systems can automate tasks such as producing repetitive content, analyzing large datasets, and personalizing news for specific reader groups.

For example, The Washington Post has used a bot, Heliograf, to generate articles on sports events and election results, freeing up human resources for investigative reporting (this has been happening since 2020: The Washington Post to debut AI-powered audio updates for 2020 election results).

Similarly, Reuters has adopted machine learning tools to identify trends in financial markets and generate accurate, real-time content. These examples demonstrate how AI can be a valuable ally, increasing newsroom efficiency and expanding news coverage capabilities.

The Illusion of Algorithmic Impartiality

Despite the advantages offered by AI, significant critical issues arise. Jason Paul Whittaker, in Tech Giants, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Journalism, highlights how automation in media decision-making processes can reinforce pre-existing biases rather than eliminate them.

Algorithms, designed and trained by humans, can perpetuate cultural and ideological prejudices, influencing news selection and content prioritization.

A concrete example concerns social media platforms, where algorithms promote sensationalist or polarizing content to maximize user engagement. The risk, as highlighted by Biswal and Kulkarni in Exploring the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Journalism, is that journalism loses its role as a public service and becomes merely a tool for capturing attention.

We don’t have to look far—just open any major Italian news outlet to find yourself caught between sensationalist headlines, gossip, advertisements, automated social media posts, and editorial content, with little ability to distinguish where one ends and another begins.

The Challenge of New Media: Quality vs. Quantity

In Rethinking the New Technology of Journalism, Seong Jae Min proposes an approach based on “slow journalism” to counteract this trend. The concept of slow journalism calls for deeper reflection and more thorough fact-checking, rejecting the pressure to publish quickly to compete in the digital arena.

This model could serve as an antidote to the overproduction of superficial content that characterizes new media.

A significant thought from Slow Journalism: Chi ha ucciso il giornalismo? by Daniele Nalbone and Alberto Puliafito is that slow journalism is not just a complaint but a working method. The authors emphasize that being “slow” means publishing content only when it is truly ready, prioritizing quality over speed.

New Professions in Journalism

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a leading academic institution based at Oxford University, is a global reference point for studying transformations in journalism.

Through its Digital News Report 2024, published annually, it explores topics such as:

The rise of social media as a source of news
The impact of digital platforms on information access
The decline of traditional journalism

The Institute emphasizes the need for innovation in newsrooms and the importance of preserving ethical values and editorial quality in a landscape increasingly dominated by technology and fragmented consumption models.

New technologies, especially Artificial Intelligence and digital media, are reshaping journalism, creating opportunities for new, highly specialized professions:

Data Journalists: combine journalistic skills with data analysis to extract meaningful stories.
Data Visualization Designers: translate complex data into interactive visual representations for better public understanding.
Newsroom Technologists: integrate automation and AI tools into journalistic workflows.
Social Media Strategists: optimize news distribution through platform algorithms and user behavior analysis.
SEO Specialists: enhance article visibility in search engines.
Digital Fact-Checkers: verify the authenticity of information and combat disinformation.

These professions require a blend of traditional and technological skills, marking journalism’s evolution toward an increasingly digital-integrated model.

Reconciling Technology and Journalistic Values in 2024

The Digital News Report 2024 provides insightful data:

Traditional platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) are losing relevance as news sources, while users shift to more visual, video-oriented applications like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
TikTok has seen a 13% growth in news consumption, especially among younger audiences and emerging markets.
59% of respondents worry about distinguishing reliable content from false information, with TikTok and X perceived as the most problematic in this regard.
Trust in media remains at 40%, stable from the previous year but significantly lower than during the pandemic.
Short-form videos dominate news consumption, with 66% of respondents watching brief news videos weekly, particularly in emerging markets.
Content creators and influencers are becoming major news sources, especially on TikTok and YouTube.
39% of users actively avoid news, up 10% since 2017, due to negative, repetitive content that causes anxiety and helplessness—a trend particularly evident in Spain, Italy, and Brazil.

Conclusion

Modern journalism stands at a crucial crossroads, and newsrooms too often prioritize quantity over quality, sacrificing depth for traffic and speed.

The obsession with constant content production and being the first to publish has fueled a vicious cycle, eroding public trust and devaluing information. For the past 25 years, news has been Google-centric.

Yet, one obvious but often forgotten truth remains: the value of journalism is not measured by the number of articles produced but by their ability to offer clarity, context, and meaning in an increasingly chaotic world.

Superficiality and lack of thorough verification not only undermine media credibility but also weaken journalism’s role as a democratic pillar.

In this scenario, the slow journalism movement is a necessary and urgent response. By focusing on in-depth analysis and critical reflection, slow journalism embodies the essence of quality journalism: not to be the first, but to be the most useful.

However, embracing this approach does not mean rejecting technology. On the contrary, new tech-driven professions—data journalists, visualization designers, newsroom technologists, and SEO specialists—are essential allies in building an information ecosystem that is both innovative and true to journalism’s core values.

The call to newsrooms is clear: investing in quality is not just a responsibility—it is a strategic imperative.

The combination of reflective slowness and advanced technological tools can transform journalism from a mere content producer into an enlightened guide in a complex world.

It’s a future that requires courage, but it is entirely within reach—as long as we choose the less-traveled road, the road of uncompromising quality.