BGoAJ: AI in Journalism

Week 1:

AI Tools used:

Midjourney (AI image generator)

An image of a farmer's market, generated by Midjourney

Week 2:

AI Tools used:

Exercise prompts:

Beat assistant #1

I’m an agricultural journalist working on the avian flu beat.
Please provide links to some sources of data to allow me to understand the current scale of the problem.
Then, create a list of sources of information I should be checking daily and weekly. Format it as a “to-do” checklist.

Beat assistant #2:

You are a specialist assistant for an agricultural reporter covering <topic/region>.
Draft a beat map listing: key agencies, farmer groups, processors, researchers, extension services, relevant datasets, and 10 interview targets (with why each matters).
Output: 1) Table of sources; 2) Top 5 story angles; 3) 8 specific questions for field reporting.

Story ideas #1:

You are assisting a specialist agricultural journalist, writing for farmers. What are some impacts of <topic/event> that people haven't thought about?
Express the answer as set of story ideas with suggested sources, contacts and data sets

Story ideas #2

Find questions being asked by farmers and farmworkers on social media about <beat/topic/region>.
Please provide the answer as a series of ideas for evergreen or explainer pieces, with links to the original questions and suggestions of where to go to research the answers

RAG:

Using only the uploaded file, draft a 10-question interview brief for:

a representative from the Wildlife Trust campaigns team on the significance of the report

Working farmers about their view of the proposals

Then, suggest some ideas for follow-up stories

Pig_and_Poultry_Report

File to use with the above prompt

Pig_and_Poultry_Report.pdf

4 MB

Links:

I know journalists are using AI in their work but this is a bit much!

Dawn business pages desk should have at least edited the last para out!

😆😆😆 pic.twitter.com/JWNdHNWvnv
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) November 12, 2025

The frequency of hallucination (ie, made-up stuff) in Grok et al makes this claim hard to believe.

AI is like a PPE grad: talking very convincingly, having not done the work and getting basic stuff wrong.

So far, hallucination seems to be a feature - not a bug- of LLMs. https://t.co/ITuRmEKIXb
— Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) June 21, 2025

Week 3:

Exercise Prompts:

LinkedIn post:

Write a post for Linkedin of around 300 words, summarising this post in a way that will encourage people to click through and read the piece - while also stimulating debate about it within Linkedin. Create a cartoon to accompany the post. https:// onemanandhisblog.com/2025/11/getting-ai-in-perspective/

Subbing/promotion ideas

‘Suggest 5 headline variations…’
‘Rewrite this paragraph for clarity…’
‘Create 3 social post angles…’

Week 4:

Update:

In the session I mentioned that NotebookLM now had the ability to create Infographics, but it wasn't available to me yet. Well, now it is. Here's one generated from the Bird Flu notebook I used in session 2:

And here's a video explainer it created:

AI Tools used:

Nano Banana 2 (part of Google Gemini)

This was launched during the course. Here's Google's intro video:

A nano banana 2 image of an agricultural journalist at work in a field…

Exercise prompts:

ChatGPT/Midjourney image prompt:

Create a cartoon of a Scottish blackfaced sheep using AI on a laptop to create images of other sheep. Use the visual style of 1970s editorial cartoons, and give it the aspect ratio 4:3

Revised prompt for Midjourney

Create a cartoon of a sheep working on a laptop in a field, using it to create images of other sheep, using Midjourney. The main sheep in the image is of the Scottish Blackfaced breed. The cartoon should be in the style of a 1970s editorial cartoon in UK media.

ChatGPT's suggested Midjourney prompt:

A Scottish Blackface sheep sitting in a grassy hillside field, typing on a laptop that displays cartoon images of other sheep. Drawn in the style of a 1970s British editorial cartoon, with bold ink outlines, cross-hatching, textured shading, muted earth-tone palette, slight exaggeration of features, and gentle satirical tone. Composition 4:3, hand-drawn look, vintage newspaper print texture.

Video prompt #1

A video of a shepherd herding sheep into a field on a hillside, with woods in the background. It’s a misty morning. A sheep dog is at work, too.

Video prompt #2

A photo realistic video of a shepherd herding sheep into a field on a hillside, with woods in the background. It’s a misty morning. A sheep dog is at work, too.