Historically, writing has been a craft best fulfilled by humans. As personal touch and nuance are often seen as prerequisites for great writing, it can be difficult to imagine robots, or more specifically augmented intelligence (A.I.), capable of doing it convincingly, much less meaningfully.

Advanced communications technologies are growing increasingly popular in similar sectors, like marketing and advertising, but has not yet impacted the public relations industry in any substantial way. Many PR professionals see augmented intelligence (A.I.) and automation as a threat to their jobs and a hindrance to the creativity that makes their work unique and gratifying, despite its growth across other industries.

When thinking about the term “news literate,” you’d be remiss if you didn’t consider the way its definition has changed. The concept of being news-literate has been evolving over the past few years, particularly as the news itself has changed. “Back in the day” when everyone received the same news from the same three network stations, news literacy was based more or less on whether or not you had taken in what had been offered up. Now, given the multitude of news sources, fake news and unconscious bias, news literacy is strongly rooted in digestion and comprehension.