A trade publisher and sports journalism site are using software to write stories so they can save money on writers.
Here's an excerpt generated from an article:
“Wisconsin jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in a 51-17 win over UNLV on Thursday at Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers scored 20 points in the first quarter on a Russell Wilson touchdown pass, a Montee Ball touchdown run and a James White touchdown run. Wisconsin’s offense dominated the Rebels’ defense. The Badgers racked up 499 total yards in the game including 258 yards passing and 251 yards on the ground.”
It's seems to have all the facts most people want to know--scores, runs, yardage gained, and players. What's lacking is the human element--the voice.
I'm not a journalist; I work with fiction writers. But in all the news stories and non-fic articles I've read over my lifetime, there's always a point of view, a human voice relaying information. It's not a listing of facts and figures--there's always a reason behind why that data is relevant to the story (STORY!).
If you want a piece of software to gather data and blurt it out in a more user-friendly way (rather than a spreadsheet or graph), than I can see how this might be useful. But as a means to tell the story of the event or process or historical moment? Not even close to the human element.
Comments