What is the scent of the writer? The scent of the writer comes in a variety of ways, not just the use of the first person narrator.  In fact, it begins with the style the writer utilizes to craft the story. AI-produced stories are likely to appear in traditional inverted pyramid formats or templates emphasizing the 5Ws—Who, What, Where, When and Why.  A human writer can get away from these story templates and start with recreating a scene and appealing to the senses, making us hear, see and smell what she saw. Machine learning is the domain of templates, based on story structures created and tried by humans for ages. For the human writer, the reservoir of potential templates is immense. With the fast moving use of AI for content creation, the distinct voice of the human writer has become more crucial than ever. As AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent, the qualities that distinguish human writing—authenticity, emotional depth, and creative intuition—are more valuable in ensuring that a writer’s presence is felt throughout a narrative. 

If a photo is worth a thousand words, then in today’s Artificial Intelligence-infused journalism, a human byline is worth much more than that.  The words coming out of a human writer’s head will give stories the validation and genuineness that no robot can match yet.

The major media networks are already realizing the value of the human capital that resides with every writer in the newsroom. Soon, the audience will, too, perhaps demanding that stories of consequence be written by humans.

Recently, The New York Times introduced a new style of bylines and did so with an article explaining to readers why this was an important step, and the first change in byline styles in the iconic newspaper’s 128-year history:“With the increasing prospect of more A.I.-generated content filling the internet, we want to address this head-on by emphasizing the people behind our work..The new format, which we call enhanced bios, was designed to bolster trust with readers by letting them know who we are and how we work.

“Our journalists are what set The New York Times apart. This morning we published hundreds of byline pages in a new format that highlights the experience, expertise and ethics of our reporters, photographers, editors, and audio, video and data journalists from across the newsroom and Opinion.”

This is a move that is likely to be imitated by news media around the world.  For the Times’ readers, the new byline style allows them to click on the byline and get a biographical sketch of the writer. As a result, writers will have to allow for their writing to show more of the “I was there” approach, dropping bread crumbs along the way that indicate that their stories are created with the writer’s unique style, their DNA—indeed, the scent of the writer.

The Human Voice Becomes More Important Than Ever.  

Sincerely yours, Merry Christmas for all of you!

Prof. Ing. Karl Malik

Karl.Malik@premedianewsletter.de