Making the Media S5E11: The Generation Game

S5E11: The Generation Game

There is a mismatch between the rate of development of generative AI tools for the news industry and the adoption of the technology within newsrooms itself. That is one of the main findings of a major new report which is the subject of the latest episode of the Making the Media Podcast. Host Craig Wilson interviews Dr Alexandra Borchardt, who is the author of a report for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) called “Leading Newsrooms in the age of Generative AI.”

Listen to Hear:

• How newsrooms are experimenting with generative AI
• The need for a strategic approach to the use of AI in journalism
• Why being transparent about AI use may backfire

Our Guest This Episode

Alexandra Borchardt

Alexandra Borchardt is a senior journalist, researcher, university teacher, and independent advisor with more than 25 years of newsroom experience, 15 of these in leadership roles. In the past five years, she has supported 26 European publishers in digital transformation as a coach for the World Association of News Publishers’ (WAN-IFRA) Table Stakes Europe Program. Alexandra teaches leadership and strategy as an honorary professor for Leadership and Digital Transformation at TU Munich’s TUM School of Management and is affiliated with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford as a senior research associate, after having created and led their profit-center leadership programs until 2019. Prior to this, she was managing editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Germany’s leading quality daily. She is the author of the EBU news report “Leading Newsrooms in the Age of Generative AI” and lead author of three previous EBU news reports, the latest ones being “Trusted Journalism in the Age of Generative AI” (2024) and “Climate Journalism That Works: Between Knowledge and Impact” (2023).

“There are significant hopes in the industry that AI will really help to enhance journalism.” Alexandra Borchardt, EBU Report Author