Artificial intelligence (AI) applied to informative documentation and journalistic sports writing. The case of BeSoccer

Abstract

In fields such as journalism, the digitalization process runs in parallel to that of robotisation tasks, which facilitate professional work and imply the loss of routine jobs at the same time, but also the need to train in emerging disciplines that are progressively entering media newsrooms. The automation of documentation and news production is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data (BG). The main objective of this article is to search for theoretical references on AI applied to journalism as well as to learn about the case of BeSoccer through a case study and in-depth interviews with its CEO and marketing manager. The results allow us to discover new journalism production forms closely linked to BD and IA.

Literature Review on Artificial Intelligence in Journalism: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications Indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus

“…Scholars several terms concerning the field of AI in journalism: "robot journalism", "automated journalism", "algorithmic journalism" and "automated news". Kunert [5], Moravec et al [6], Segarra-Saavedra et al [7], Milosavljevic et al [8] apply the term "automated journalism" to AI in the media, arguing that this is the most usable tool for journalists. Brlek et al [9], Diakopoulos et al [10], Dorr et al [11], Waddel [12] propose "algorithmic journalism" emphasizing that AI is used to gather information and produce stories.…”

Artificial Intelligence Systems-Aided News and Copyright: Assessing Legal Implications for Journalism Practices

“…New profiles are appearing in news reporting: journalists incorporate new skills to traditional ones, and one of them, regarding to automated news, is to be a designer, programmer, supervisor or editor of news items created with the help of software [12] (p. 284), so adaptation of skills and training seems more necessary than ever [27].…”

“…In 2017, the Innovation Lab of the Spanish native-digital journal El Confidencial created a software named AnaFut which creates football chronicles of the lower categories. Sport coverage also combines documentation and bots [12], in the case of BeSoccer. Most of those systems use as a primary source data provided by official institutions: the Spanish public broadcast service, Radio Televisión Española, decided in 2020 to experiment with data extracted from the Spanish Football Federation to offer short news on results of the lower leagues, "interpreting them and presenting a text in natural language, related to the selected event with no personal intervention", using HTML format and as a mere news, and not penalizing the SEO positioning of the source itself.…”

Inteligencia artificial en RTVE al servicio de la España vacía. Proyecto de cobertura informativa con redacción automatizada para las elecciones municipales de 2023

“…Por otro lado, la aplicación de la Inteligencia Artificial a la robótica humanoide tampoco ha alcanzado los resultados deseados, de manera que lejos de los temores iniciales de los periodistas acerca de un desplazamiento en sus funciones, estas tecnologías están por el momento liberando a los profesionales de la información de procesos mecánicos y dejando espacio para el desarrollo de la creatividad un marco con el que por el momento la mecanización no puede competir (Fernández Barrero, 2021, p. 92). Sin embargo, hay quienes ven más eficaz y satisfactorio para los trabajadores la redacción automatizada de noticias, alertando sobre la pérdida de puestos de trabajo, pero coinciden en la generación en la generación de nuevos perfiles profesionales y, también, de una reconversión del profesional de mero redactor a supervisor o editor de textos (Segarra-Saavedra et al, 2019). Igualmente llamativo es el hecho de que no haya una conciencia clara entre los profesionales del periodismo de que la generación de noticias a través de algoritmos ha dejado de ser una posibilidad para convertirse en una realidad.…”