COPC Alumni Jody Doherty-Cove talks all things AI with our L5 Journalism students.
PUBLISHED 30-01-2024
A visit from Jody Doherty-Cove, a former alumni and award-winning journalist, gave students at COPCs Highbury Campus a taste of how Artificial Intelligence can be utilised in the newsroom and how its enhancing reporting and news skills in the industry.
Working as Head of Editorial AI for Newsquest publishers, Jody is a former COPC Journalism Apprentice who worked at The Argus in Brighton before starting his current role.
He explained to the full-time students how technology was changing very quickly and that AI could help the way that news was reported in the near future. AI could also allow reporters to manage their time more efficiently, if used correctly.
He said: “It's going to be really important for journalists of the future to be able to understand what changes in technology mean, the ethical implications of this and the risks.
As part of the training for what it means to be a journalist in the next 10 - 20 years, AI is going to be a large part of that. This is the early stage of these developments, so the risks aren't yet known and actually some of the great benefits aren't yet known either. I think it's important for journalists to start looking at the opportunities now.”
Student Lucy Hunt said: “As a trainee journalist, I’m someone that's quite apprehensive about AI coming into the newsroom, so it was really good to hear about how it could benefit me rather than take over.”
Isabella Holliday said “Jody’s visit had been highly valuable and It made me consider different ways to approach writing articles that I wouldn't have thought about before and different ways of researching certain topics”.
Visiting the Highbury campus, Jody added: “I really loved and valued my time when I was here at Highbury. I learned so much and it's great to see some of my old stories on the wall of the college newsroom, inspiring the new generation of journalism students”.
