A necessary conference slated for Tuesday, October 22, 2024 in Makati City will assemble Filipino journalists, researchers, and members of several organizations to investigate the prospects and challenges artificial intelligence (AI) provides for news coverage. With the approaching 2025 Philippine midterm elections, the conference is expected to draw a lot of interest given its focus on the effects of artificial intelligence on the media sector, especially its impact on public opinion and election reporting. Organized by Asian Journalism Fellowship (AJF) alumni from the Philippines, dubbed the “AJF@PH Connect Forum,” the event seeks to highlight the several risks and advantages artificial intelligence could offer for election coverage.
A logical conversation about elections and artificial intelligence
Rapid development of artificial intelligence technology begs questions regarding its use in many sectors, particularly in journalism where the line between reality and fiction is progressively disappearing. The forum is especially important since the Philippines gets ready for the midterm elections in 2025, a major event for the democracy of that nation. Rising AI-driven technologies—deepfakes, automated content generation, and data-driven algorithms—have the ability to question accepted news reporting and raise emphasis on the integrity of election coverage given its hazards.
With seminars focused on the ways artificial intelligence could affect news reporting, the possibilities for AI-generated disinformation to spread, and the ethical issues journalists must keep in mind while using AI tools in their work, the forum will candidly address these challenges. Concurrently, the forum will examine how fact-checking, automation of labor-intensive tasks, and provision of fresh narrative options might help artificial intelligence to improve journalism.
Comprising online and in-person participation in a hybrid form, the event will take place at the Aboitiz Tech Space of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City. The forum aims to provide media professionals, reporters, and experts a platform to meet and investigate how the media might evolve to fit the fast changing terrain of digital technology, guaranteeing responsible use of artificial intelligence to maintain the accuracy and credibility of news reporting during election times.
Focus AI: Learning from Leading Authorities
Three eminent authorities with a lot of experience in both domains will give lectures in the session to offer perceptive analysis of the complicated link between artificial intelligence and journalism. These professionals will discuss how artificial intelligence could be used to enhance journalism while lowering the risks of unethical reporting behavior and false information.
Among the major speakers at the event will be journalist, researcher, and digital trainer Miguel D’Souza. Specialized in news verification and data storytelling, researcher with the University of Technology-Sydney Centre for Media Transition D’Souza also instructs reporters in the use of digital technology for news reporting at the joint venture between Google and News Corp Australia. Emphasizing the need of news verification in the era of artificial intelligence, his talk will look at how reporters may utilize AI tools to check facts and stop the dissemination of false information during coverage of elections.
Attending the meeting also are former GMA News Online editor-in-chief as well as Harvard University Jaemark Tordecilla, 2024 Nieman Fellow. Tordecilla is educated at the junction of technology and journalism having studied computer science and a master’s degree in Technology Management from the University of the Philippines. His talk will examine how, even with journalistic ethics, artificial intelligence methods could be used to improve journalistic practices including content creation, data analysis and job automation. Tordecillas knowledge will especially be helpful as the media sector works on how to apply artificial intelligence without sacrificing the credibility of election reporting.
Technical point of view to the debate will be provided by Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship faculty member Dr. Michelle Banawan. Her post-doctoral research at Arizona State University concentrated on artificial intelligence in education, natural language processing, and machine learning, sharpening her knowledge of more general uses of AI across sectors. Dr. Banawan will then go on to show how artificial intelligence shapes society at large, stressing how it may be utilized to inspire transparency and responsibility in media and elections. Her speech will also examine the moral questions brought up by employing artificial intelligence in public debate and how reporters should approach these subjects covering elections.
Moderated and discussed in front of an audience
The event will include a Q&A session following the panel of experts’ presentations so that attendees may engage with the speakers and review the issues brought up. To guarantee a lively and educational conversation follows, well-known ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) journalist Ron Cruz will moderate this segment of the show. Participants will be able to look at the pragmatic uses for artificial intelligence in news reporting as well as the possible dangers AI technologies create to the integrity of election coverage.
Apart from the moderated panel discussion, Mara Cepeda of The Straits Times will be the emcee for the event, moving attendees between the several regions of the forum and ensuring that the conversations remain targeted and efficient. By means of breakout sessions tackling more in-depth conversations on specific issues relating to artificial intelligence and journalism, participants will also be able to examine themes of interest in more depth.
Cooperation among reporters in the media
Coordinating the forum are Asian Journalist Fellowship (AJF) alumni from the Philippines funded by the Temasek Foundation and the Asian Institute of Management. These media workers range in background from ABS-CBN News, GMA News, Rappler, The Philippine Star, PTV, and many regional and national news sources. Bringing mid-career reporters from all around Asia together to learn from one another, share ideas, and work on initiatives advancing the field of journalism has always been the core platform the AJF has been providing.
From its 2009 founding, the AJF has expanded to include 21 journalists from the Philippines among other 238 colleagues from 22 countries and economies. Sponsored by the Institute of Policy Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, the fellowship has been vital in promoting cross-border cooperation among Asian journalists helping to negotiate the challenges presented by an increasingly digital and connected world.
Examining Media’s AI Prospect
The necessity of honest, responsible, impartial news coverage becomes ever more important as the 2025 Philippine midterm elections get near. Journalists confront additional difficulties preserving the validity of their work and making sure that false information does not compromise the democratic process as artificial intelligence technology get more entwined with the media environment.
The AJF@PH Connect Forum seeks to equip media professionals with the skills and expertise required to handle these issues, therefore guaranteeing that artificial intelligence is applied for good in journalism. Combining academics, reporters, and experts will help the forum create a cooperative environment where delegates may grow from one another and discover innovative approaches to ethically use artificial intelligence.
Emphasizing the consequences of artificial intelligence on the media sector, especially on its impact on public opinion and election reporting, the symposium is expected to draw a lot of interest with the approaching 2025 Philippine midterm elections. Dubbed the “AJF@PH Connect Forum,” Asian Journalism Fellowship (AJF) alumni from the Philippines plans to raise awareness of the several risks and advantages artificial intelligence could offer to election coverage.
