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Good journalists write stories that are not solely based on data but also on experience and observations. I personally hate it when a game summary of a sportin

Good journalists write stories that are not solely based on data but also on experience and observations. I personally hate it when a game summary of a sporting event is just the box score in sentence structure. Yes, rote descriptions of data are replaceable by software, but is it even worth replacing? Maybe it's just because I'm a data-oriented person, but I would rather look at a table of data or a graph than read these types of stories. I want to read details that can only come from being there in person. I can look at a box score to see Lebron James scored 27 points or missed a free throw at the end of a game. A journalist's job is to tell me that he appeared distracted by the crowd loudly booing a controversial call or that Andrew Bynum pouted on the bench after getting into a heated argument with his coach during a timeout. Those kinds of observations are what makes a story come alive and it will be a long time before software can replace this human element.

knowtheory 14y ago
So, you want analysis and flavor text. Not everyone does necessarily. There is a place where good writing and journalism overlap, but that's not the totality of what journalism is for.
vibrunazo 14y ago
Robots have much better memory and access to want you call "experience" than a human. Robots only do what they're told and are only as good and creative as the coder. If you can write an emotional heated narrative. Then you can code a robot that does the same. There's nothing intrinsic to programming that makes it impossible for good writers to coffee a robot that mimics their style.
- dansingerman 14y ago
  I think you are missing the grandparent's point. It is easy(-ish) to get some structured data and turn it into sentence format. Unless you have structured data that represents all human experience someone present at an event could muster (smell, sound, emotional feeling...) I don't see how a robot could replace it.

knowtheory 14y ago

So, you want analysis and flavor text. Not everyone does necessarily. There is a place where good writing and journalism overlap, but that's not the totality of what journalism is for.

vibrunazo 14y ago

Robots have much better memory and access to want you call "experience" than a human. Robots only do what they're told and are only as good and creative as the coder. If you can write an emotional heated narrative. Then you can code a robot that does the same. There's nothing intrinsic to programming that makes it impossible for good writers to coffee a robot that mimics their style.

dansingerman 14y ago
I think you are missing the grandparent's point. It is easy(-ish) to get some structured data and turn it into sentence format. Unless you have structured data that represents all human experience someone present at an event could muster (smell, sound, emotional feeling...) I don't see how a robot could replace it.