Use it as an opportunity to explain why original reporting matters
AI scraping your content? Explain and defend your work
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There’s a good chance you’ve heard, had or discussed this question lately: What do we do about all these AI news sites and social media accounts scraping our content?
It’s a question I’ve heard repeatedly at conferences and during trainings over the past year. Sometimes the sites are clearly AI-generated. Sometimes there’s a real person behind them aggregating content. Sometimes it’s harder to tell.
But the basic problem is the same: The accounts publishing the information aren’t the people who reported it.
As we see the information ecosystem get more saturated with this type of aggregated, repackaged AI-generated content, I think journalists have an opportunity to do more than complain about it.
Journalists and newsrooms should lean into helping audiences understand it and turn the information scraping into a media literacy opportunity, while at the same time differentiating and explaining the value of our content.
Think about the person who encounters one of these sites or accounts. They see:
- Information that looks like legitimate news content
- A polished website, with images and headlines
- A social post that looks similar to what they see from news organization accounts they are familiar with
- Information that is factually correct and has the basic answers to who, what, where and when
But where did that information come from? Who actually reported the story?
A lot of times it can be difficult, if not impossible, to find the answer to those questions. And if audiences don’t try to figure out the answers or know how to navigate it, where are we then?
We could potentially have audiences who are satisfied with content that doesn’t go deeper, have context or contain multiple perspectives. They don’t think or care about who gathered the information, who talked to the people involved in the story and if anyone was actually physically present to ask follow-up questions. We potentially could see the standard of news lowered to the equivalent of this AI-aggregated content. The real value journalists provide is diluted and not seen as a value anymore.
I don’t think that’s what communities and our audiences want, and I do think they need and want help differentiating between this AI content popping up everywhere and actual journalism. This is where journalists and newsrooms can come in.
How we can explain AI-generated content
Consider creating a video or story (or two) that explains to your community what they’re seeing. You could use a real example of another site or account that has republished or aggregated your reporting. Then walk people through the differences:
- You might have seen this story here. But who is actually behind it?
- This site didn’t send a reporter to the city council meeting. We did.
- This account didn’t interview the people involved. We did.
- This site may have gathered the basic facts from our reporting, but it isn’t the original source.AI can only aggregate what already exists. This information wouldn’t actually be available if we hadn’t reported it.
If AI was used to generate or summarize the content, explain that, too. Help people understand what AI-generated or aggregated information means.
- It’s not the whole story
- It’s almost always missing the depth and context you provide as someone who is actually doing the newsgathering, interviewing and reporting.
This isn’t about telling audiences that everything produced with AI is automatically bad or that every aggregator is automatically unreliable. It’s about giving people the information they need to understand how the content they’re consuming was created and where it came from. It also gives newsrooms and journalists the opportunity to explain why going to the original reporting has value.
How we make our value clear
That second opportunity is about making the worth of your own journalism visible. Don’t just tell people “We’re the original source.” Show them what that means.
Your reporter was there. Your reporter can ask the city council member a follow-up question. Your newsroom can seek another perspective, investigate a tip, add context and correct something when it’s wrong.
You can tell your audience:
- If you have a question about this story, ask us.
- If something doesn’t make sense, tell us.
- If you want more context or another perspective, we can go get it.
One of the recurring themes we have heard from news consumers over the last 10 years at Trusting News is that audiences often don’t know what journalists do or why those practices matter. This AI-scraped content creates another opportunity to explain that.
Rather than assuming people understand the difference between original reporting, aggregation and AI-generated content, we can show them. And consider doing it in a format people will actually encounter. A short social video with a side-by-side comparison could be especially effective.
How are you differentiating your content?
I’d love to see examples of newsrooms doing this. If you’ve created something that explains to your audience how your journalism is different from scraped or AI-generated content, send it my way. I’d also love to see examples of journalists demonstrating just how heavily AI-generated answers about a community or topic rely on their reporting, as Sam Hoisington of The Bentonville Bulletin talked about here.
And if you want help doing this, reach out: lynn@TrustingNews.org
At Trusting News, we learn how people decide what news to trust and turn that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We train and empower journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. Learn more about our work, vision and team. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, BlueSky and LinkedIn.
Assistant director Lynn Walsh (she/her) is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative journalism at the national level and locally in California, Ohio, Texas and Florida. She is the former Ethics Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists and a past national president for the organization. Based in San Diego, Lynn is also an adjunct professor and freelance journalist. She can be reached at lynn@TrustingNews.org and on Twitter @lwalsh.
