By now you’ve probably heard the buzz (and the hand-wringing) about using ChatGPT in journalism. As a reporter or editor, you might wonder: can ChatGPT help me write news articles, and if so, how do I use it properly? The answer, in short, is that ChatGPT can be a powerful aid at various stages of your writing process – but you must handle it with care.
Think of ChatGPT as a junior reporter on your team: great for some research and drafts, hopeless without supervision. Let’s walk through practical ways to incorporate ChatGPT into news writing while avoiding the pitfalls.
Step 1: Brainstorm Story Ideas and Angles
One way to use ChatGPT is at the very start of your process: brainstorming. Suppose you cover tech industry news and need fresh angles for an upcoming piece on AI regulations. You could prompt ChatGPT with something like: “What are some less obvious angles or implications of new AI regulation policies that tech reporters could explore?” ChatGPT might return a list of ideas – for example, impact on small startups, international competition angles, ethical debates, effect on job market, etc.
By generating these suggestions, ChatGPT can help you shake loose ideas you hadn’t considered. You’re essentially using it as a sounding board or an “idea generator.” You might even ask it to elaborate on one angle once it suggests it: “Tell me more about how AI regulations could affect startups specifically.” It could give you a mini-analysis that, while needing vetting, might reveal lines of inquiry (like startups struggling with compliance costs) that you can then pursue with real sources.
Pro Tip: Treat its output as brainstorming notes, not assignments. Some ideas will be duds or too generic, but others could spark a great story. Also, be specific in your prompt if you want ideas in a certain area – ChatGPT responds well to detailed requests.
Step 2: Research Background Information
Once you have a story idea, use ChatGPT to gather background facts or explanations. For example, if you’re writing about a court ruling and want a quick explanation of the legal precedent behind it, you could ask: “Explain in simple terms the Supreme Court precedent on XYZ that this new ruling is based on.” ChatGPT can produce a summary that’s easier to digest than wading through legal texts. This can quickly get you up to speed before you interview experts or write your explainer section.
Another research use: getting context on timeline of events. You could prompt: “List the key events in the timeline of the Flint water crisis, with dates.” It may give you a decent outline of events which you can then verify and flesh out. Or “What are the main points of the Paris Climate Agreement?” to refresh your memory for a climate story. Essentially, ChatGPT can act as a super-charged reference librarian for quick facts and summaries.
Important: Always double-check any facts ChatGPT gives you. It sounds confident even when it’s wrong. Use it to gather leads on facts, then confirm those through trusted sources or your own reporting. For instance, if ChatGPT says “The Paris Agreement set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C,” you should verify that by looking at the actual agreement text or a reputable source (which in this case, it’s correct about the 1.5°C aspirational goal). Use ChatGPT as a starting researcher, not a final source.
Step 3: Outline Your Article
Staring at a blank page is daunting. ChatGPT can help by generating a tentative outline for your news article. Let’s say you’re writing a news piece on a new city budget proposal. You could feed ChatGPT a summary of the key info you have and ask for an outline:
“I’m writing a news article about our city’s 2025 budget proposal. It includes a 5% increase in school funding, cuts to road maintenance, and a new tax on plastic bags. Outline a news story structure for this.”
ChatGPT might produce an outline like:
- Headline/Lead: City unveils 2025 budget… main highlights.
- Graf 1-2: The key points (schools +5%, road maintenance -10%, new plastic bag tax).
- Graf 3: Quote from mayor or official defending the budget.
- Graf 4: Reactions – maybe opposition from a city council member or public reaction (if you have it).
- Graf 5: Context – this budget compared to last year, or why the changes.
- Graf 6: Next steps – when will it be voted on.
That’s a pretty standard news outline. You likely already know this structure from experience, but seeing it laid out can confirm you’re not missing a section. It gives you a checklist of elements to include: main facts, official quotes, reactions, context, next steps.
Some journalists find that even if they won’t use the AI’s wording, an outline helps to organize their thoughts and reporting. It’s like having a quick template that you can then fill in with details and color from your reporting.
Note: If ChatGPT’s outline feels too generic, you can prompt again with more specifics (“include an angle about impact on low-income residents in the outline”). The more detail you provide about what you want, the better it can tailor the structure.
Step 4: Draft Portions of the Article (Carefully)
Here’s where things get interesting – and where caution is needed. You can use ChatGPT to generate draft text for certain parts of your article. For example:
- Writing the lede: If you’re struggling with the first sentence, you might prompt, “Write a news article opening paragraph about [story specifics].” It could give you a straightforward news lede that you then tweak. E.g., “The City of X unveiled a 2025 budget proposal on Tuesday that boosts school funding by 5% while cutting road repairs, drawing mixed reactions from residents.” Not bad, right? You’d of course adjust tone or details, but it can break your writer’s block.
- Describing technical details: If a part of your article requires explaining something technical or statistical, you can have ChatGPT draft that explanation in layman’s terms. For instance, “Explain in one paragraph how the new vaccine approval process works, to include in a news article.” Use that as a starting explainer and then ensure it’s accurate and clear.
- Generating filler quotes or hypothetical text: This one’s tricky – you should never fabricate quotes for real people. But say you know the kind of statement a figure gave (you have notes but not the exact phrasing, or you expect a press release soon). You could simulate: “Draft a quote from the mayor about why this budget is needed (I will replace with the real quote later).” ChatGPT might give: “We believe this budget is a responsible plan that invests in our children’s future without overburdening taxpayers,” said Mayor Jane Doe. This can act as a placeholder in your draft until you plug in the actual quote. It helps you see how the story flows with a quote in place.
Extreme caution: Do not accidentally publish AI-generated text that hasn’t been verified or replaced with the real thing. In the above example, you must swap in the actual quote from the mayor once you have it. The AI’s “quote” is just an educated guess and using it as if real would be a serious ethical breach. Similarly, any facts or figures ChatGPT drafts need checking. Essentially, use it to conquer the blank page and get a draft going, but then heavily edit with your own reporting.
You might recall that some outlets tried automating article writing with AI and ended up with errors in over half the stories. That’s exactly what we want to avoid. The AI draft is the starting point – you are the finishing touch. Always fact-check every statement and ensure the narrative makes sense.
Step 5: Edit and Refine the Article
After you’ve assembled your article – maybe with some sections drafted by you, others assisted by ChatGPT – you enter editing mode. Here, ChatGPT can again be useful in a different way: as a grammar and style checker, or even a pseudo-editor giving feedback.
Consider feeding your nearly-finished article back into ChatGPT and asking: “Suggest improvements to the clarity and flow of this article,” or “Proofread this text and point out any grammatical or factual issues.” ChatGPT might catch a long, convoluted sentence and suggest breaking it in two. Or it might point out, “It’s not immediately clear who ‘he’ refers to in the third paragraph” – something you can then fix for clarity. It could even say, “The article mentions an increase of 5% in funding but doesn’t mention the previous amount, which might give more context.” This is a smart suggestion, and you could then add, “(from $100 million to $105 million)” for context.
Now, factual issues: if you’ve provided the article text, ChatGPT might not reliably catch factual errors (it doesn’t know what’s true unless it’s very obvious or it has training data that conflicts). However, it might catch internal inconsistencies (if you accidentally said Tuesday in one place and Wednesday in another). For grammar and style, it’s quite good at suggesting smoother phrasing or active voice.
Use your judgment: Just as with any editing feedback, you don’t have to accept every suggestion. But it’s like having a second pair of eyes. Many journalists already use tools like Grammarly; ChatGPT can play a similar role, perhaps with more depth if you explicitly ask for logical flow feedback. Always give it a final human read to ensure the tone and nuance are what you want – don’t let the AI flatten your voice or change the meaning in the last pass.
The “Don’ts” of Using ChatGPT in News Writing
We’ve covered the steps to use it effectively; equally important are some things to avoid when integrating ChatGPT into your workflow:
- ❌ Don’t publish AI output verbatim. No matter how clean it looks, AI content needs human vetting. As the AP’s guidelines say, AI-generated content should not be published as is. Always review, fact-check, and edit.
- ❌ Don’t trust it with sensitive or confidential info. If you paste in raw notes or exclusive info into ChatGPT, remember that data could be stored on servers and potentially used in training. Never input anything you wouldn’t want potentially regurgitated elsewhere. (OpenAI has policies and now allows opting out of data usage, but be cautious.) For confidential stuff, keep those off AI tools or use on-premise AI if available.
- ❌ Don’t let ChatGPT’s voice overpower yours. If you blindly accept all its phrasing suggestions, you might end up with cookie-cutter language. Maintain your own newswriting style. Use ChatGPT’s text as a draft, but ensure the final copy sounds like it’s written by a human (because it is!). Inject clarity, nuance and tone that an AI wouldn’t know.
- ❌ Don’t rely on it for judgment calls. Questions like “Is this angle newsworthy?” or “Should I include this person’s name or not?” are ethical/editorial decisions for you or your editor, not for an AI. ChatGPT might give an opinion, but it doesn’t understand the real-world implications or your audience’s needs. Use it for assistive tasks, not final decisions.
- ❌ Don’t forget to disclose if required. If your newsroom has policies about AI usage, follow them. Some outlets require disclosure if AI was used in producing content. Even if not, it’s good to be transparent with your editors about how you developed the story. This field is evolving, and maintaining trust is crucial. While you don’t need to tell readers “ChatGPT helped me write this,” you absolutely need to ensure that nothing sneaks in that would betray readers’ trust (like an unchecked “fact”).
Why Bother? The Upsides of Using ChatGPT Wisely
You might think, “This sounds like more work, having to check everything the AI does.” But consider the upside: when used properly, ChatGPT can speed up the boring parts of writing and leave you more time for actual reporting and polishing. It’s like a junior reporter who can quickly churn out a draft or dig up some background while you chase the real story.
There’s also a competitive angle. A 2024 survey by Cision found that about 47% of journalists have experimented with generative AI tools at least a little, though only 5% use them often. Those numbers are likely growing. If your peers are using AI to write faster and file stories quickly, you don’t want to be left behind. The caveat is to do it without sacrificing accuracy or quality – which is why following the steps above is key.
Many journalists are using ChatGPT for tasks like research (23% of those who’ve used AI), outlining (19%), and brainstorming (13%). These are exactly the assistive tasks where AI can shine. They are not handing off the final writing to AI; they’re using it to augment their own work. When done right, you maintain full control over the narrative and facts, while benefiting from a faster process.
Conclusion: ChatGPT as a Helpful Sidekick, Not a Replacement Writer
To sum up, you can effectively use ChatGPT in writing news articles by involving it in idea generation, research, outlining, drafting, and editing. It’s like having a tireless but sometimes error-prone intern. You give it direction, it gives you material, and then you – the experienced journalist – refine that into publishable prose.
The golden rule is to keep a human in the loop at all times. Use ChatGPT to make your work easier, but never to do your job entirely. You’re the one who understands the story’s importance, the community it impacts, and the standards that must be met. AI doesn’t write with context or conscience, but you do.
When you wield ChatGPT wisely, you can meet tight deadlines with less stress and even explore angles you might have missed otherwise. Just imagine it as a tool – as normal as using spell-check or the internet – albeit one that requires some new precautions and skills. As you become adept with it, it can genuinely enhance your efficiency and perhaps even the quality of your first drafts.
One final tip: practice on low-stakes writing first. Try using ChatGPT to help write a personal blog or an internal memo to get the hang of its quirks. You’ll learn how to prompt it effectively and how to spot its typical errors. Then, when you bring it into your news writing process, you’ll be better prepared to use it responsibly.
The future of journalism likely involves collaborating with AI tools, and those who learn to do so ethically and effectively will have an edge. Embrace ChatGPT as your sidekick, but remember – you’re Batman, it’s just Alfred. You make the call on what ultimately hits the page.
Ready to give it a try? Maybe start with your next article’s outline or ask it to suggest a headline. Play around and see what value it adds. And if you want to stay informed on the latest journalist-savvy AI tricks (and traps to avoid), join our newsletter. We’re all learning as we go in this new era of AI-assisted reporting – staying sharp and sharing knowledge will ensure we all uphold the standards of journalism we cherish.