TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Every year, KGUN 9 On Your Side's parent company, E.W. Scripps, highlights National News Literacy Week.
This push, in partnership with the News Literacy Project, works to give readers and consumers the tools to fact check online content.
Moving forward, the use of technology run through artificial intelligence will grow. So, too, will its presence in the content people watch or listen too online.
KGUN 9 is sharing part of our conversation with the associate director of the University of Arizona School of Journalism. The discussion touched on the effect social media is already having on everyone, and how the future of AI ties in to a person's right to free speech.
Professor Pate McMichael said seeing millions of social media users fall into unhealthy behaviors makes sense, especially over these past three years.
McMichael said journalists should recognize that people are still processing the trauma of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.
"So much of what we're doing on the internet is doom scrolling," he shared. "When you see these stories about what could happen, I think we're all conscious of the fact that many of the things that maybe seemed very implausible before are now existential threats to us."
At one point in the interview, McMichael finished reading a Poynter Institute article fact-checking a TikTok video which garnered millions of views. The video's creator claimed viruses discovered under melting glaciers in Siberia could pose another worldwide risk to humans' health.
Poynter staff ultimately found the bacteria in question can only infect amoebas. Scientists from other publications said they do not believe these organisms can come back to life after remaining frozen for hundreds of years.
"Journalists will have to find ways to play their, play our role: fact checking those claims (like the video)," McMichael added, "and trying to make sure that people are not making rash decisions, or over buying into wild claims without any real proof."
However, altering this proof is still a possibility. McMichael says he understands the urge to regulate this new technology.
He pointed to recent bills passed through state legislatures — California and Texas, to name a couple — which cracked down on AI and deepfake content use. Those, he said, open a path he fears could limit people's 1st Amendment rights.
"If we try to regulate these new technologies, or we try to ban them — in electioneering speech, within 60 days of election you're not allowed to create a deep fake— That, to me, is probably going to backfire in and of itself." McMichael said. "What is more scary to me is, you know, involving powerful governments around the world to suddenly decide who gets to use that technology and who doesn't."
McMichael said people can start improving their media diet through noticing when a story they read on their feed relies on another journalist's original work. From there, McMichael recommends finding and reading all the articles and pieces the journalist has published regarding the issue.
Readers, he said, can find examples of this first-hand, invested reporting of stories when they come across updates on the war in Ukraine.
There, McMichael said, journalists on the ground have to track information that can change every day.
"A lot of us were so removed from it, and we're not there," he shared. "It's important for us to really respect and appreciate the amount of resources and time and sacrifice that go into that kind of reporting."
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José Zozaya is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. Before arriving in southern Arizona, José worked in Omaha, Nebraska where he covered issues ranging from local, state and federal elections, to toxic chemical spills, and community programs impacting immigrant families. Share your story ideas and important issues with José by emailing jose.zozaya@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
