2027

By Lily Gordon A little over a year ago, a team of Microsoft researchers released a project they'd been fine-tuning called Tay AI. It was a millennial-inspired, AI-powered chatbot. Microsoft hoped Tay could give the company a hip, new voice while entertaining its online audience. That's exactly what Tay did until things went south...  Tay AI's profile picture // Photo (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use

By Lily Gordon A few years ago, NPR held a contest between one of its top reporters and a computer program that generates news stories . Both contestants were tasked with writing a short radio piece on Denny's latest earnings report. The computer completed the story in two minutes. The reporter took seven minutes. Both stories were grammatically correct, featured the right information and were ready to be aired. The key difference? The version generated by a human reporter had style. It had subtle Denny's references. You could sense a playful nudge or two tucked into what was otherwise a standard finance story. Photo Joits via Flickr 2009

By Lily Gordon For a class project back in middle school, I made a video where I played both the role of the interviewee and the interviewer, à la Barbara Walters. Lily asked Lily about her family, her interests and, as Barbara would, where she saw herself in ten years. I got excited imagining my future life as an aspiring Hollywood director or writing pieces for the Wall Street Journal. It wasn't hard for eleven-year-old me to envision ten years down the road.  Photo Pixabay 2017

By Lily Gordon Earlier this week, the University of Oregon Public Relations Student Society of America hosted a media relations panel featuring three local reporters, Tiffany Eckert of KLCC, Justina Coelho of NBC 16 and Amber Wilmarth of KEZI 9. The panel discussed best practices for PR practitioners to build meaningful professional relationships with journalists, how to avoid typical press release faux pas and tips on getting the coveted feature piece in print or broadcast.  A key theme throughout the evening was the lack of journalists within newsrooms today. There just aren't enough reporters to cover everything that needs to be covered. One solution? Robo reporters. How will a decrease in reporters and increase in content demand affect PR professionals' approach to media relations? UO PRSSA's media relations panel on Nov. 1, 2017. // Photo source UO PRSSA At one point in the evening, the topic of how to become that PR person a reporter...