ChatGPT is an existential threat to media diversity

ChatGPT is an existential threat to media diversity.

To understand why it is important to understand why is diversity in the media and creative industry so important. And who better to ask than Chat GPT itself: 

Question to ChatGPT's Open AI - Why is media diversity important?

Answer by ChatGPT's Open AI - Media diversity is important for several reasons: 

 

1. Representation: Media diversity ensures that different voices, perspectives, and experiences are represented. It allows for a more accurate reflection of the diverse societies in which we live. When media outlets showcase a range of races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and abilities, it helps combat stereotypes, promotes inclusivity, and empowers marginalized communities. 

2. Pluralism: Media diversity fosters a pluralistic society by exposing individuals to a wide range of ideas, opinions, and viewpoints. It encourages critical thinking, open dialogue, and the exploration of different perspectives. A diverse media landscape helps to prevent the dominance of a single narrative or ideology, allowing for a more informed and balanced public discourse. 

3. Democracy and civic participation: A diverse media ecosystem is crucial for a healthy democracy. It ensures that citizens have access to a variety of information sources, enabling them to make informed decisions and participate meaningfully in civic life. When media outlets represent a broad range of interests, they can hold governments, institutions, and powerful individuals accountable, fostering transparency and good governance. 

4. Social cohesion: Media diversity contributes to social cohesion by promoting understanding, empathy, and unity among diverse groups. By portraying a range of experiences and identities, the media can bridge divides and create a sense of shared humanity. It helps challenge prejudices, reduce discrimination, and build a more inclusive society where everyone feels valued and respected. 

5. Economic and cultural benefits: A diverse media industry can have economic and cultural benefits. It creates opportunities for diverse content creators, journalists, and artists, allowing them to share their talents and stories with a broader audience. This, in turn, promotes innovation, creativity, and cultural exchange, enriching society as a whole. 

In summary, media diversity is essential for representation, pluralism, democracy, social cohesion, and economic/cultural benefits. It ensures that the media landscape reflects the realities of diverse societies, amplifies different voices and perspectives, and facilitates a more inclusive and informed public discourse. 

Far too often the debate around media diversity is framed in terms of point five, the need to employ more Black and Asian people in the industry at different levels, or employing more women, disabled people, LGBTQ+ (insert the protected characteristic / underrepresented demographic here).

While increasing the employment prospects and career progression of all these different groups is important it fundamentally misses the other four points and puts media diversity on par with increasing diversity in any other industry or sector; from double glazing to medicinal chemist (just for the record some of my best friends work in double glazing and I once dated a medicinal chemist).

What ChatGPT so beautifully explains is the idea that media diversity is about so much more than employing a few more Black and Asian people in the media industry at different levels, or employing more women, disabled people, LGBTQ+ (insert the protected characteristic / underrepresented demographic here).

While increasing the employment prospects and career progression of all these different groups is important it fundamentally misses the point and puts media diversity on par with increasing diversity in any other industry or sector; from double glazing to marine biologists.

The importance of media diversity is unique and it goes to the very heart of how we function as a society.

And this is precisely why ChatGPT is an existential threat to media diversity.

If we believe media diversity is about freedom of speech, democratic discourse, and who is empowered to contribute to the narrative that society tells about itself and the rest of the world.

Fundamentally if we believe in representational democracy, we must fight for representational story telling. Because it is the stories we tell, both fiction and non-fiction, that shapes our understanding of the world, our values, our beliefs, and how our democracy works.

ChatGPT and other forms of AI are an existential threat to that.

ChatGPT creates text and stories (fiction and non-fiction) which are then used by students, authors, scriptwriters and journalists as a first draft which they can edit, or to supplement their own existing work. (In the future it may not even support the work of creatives but replace them)

The problem is ChatGPT is “White, non-disabled, heterosexual and male”. In that the source text that ChatGPT’s algorithms draw on are disproportionately written by white, non-disabled, heterosexual men.

This should hardly be surprising for anyone who works in the field of media diversity. It is already known that white, non-disabled, heterosexual men are disproportionately over-represented in areas such as journalism, literature, film and theatre.

By drawing on the current source materials ChatGPT will by definition amplify the already existing inequalities of the narratives, values and views of white, non-disabled, heterosexual men being over-represented.

Let me illustrate this with one simple example:

In 2020 the Press Gazette published research by Women in Journalism, showing that in one week in July 2020 - at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests across the world - UK’s 11 biggest newspapers failed to feature a single byline by black journalist on their front pages. Taking non-white journalists as whole of the 174 bylines examined only 4 were credited to journalists of colour.

The same report also found that in the same week just one in four front-page bylines across the 11 papers went to women.

Importantly the week the study surveyed the biggest news stories were about Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, the replacement of the toppled statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol and the appeal over the British citizenship of the Muslim mother, Shamima Begum.

Assuming ChatGPT's algorithm draws on the stories written by journalists in mainstream newspapers to generate its text, if you ask it any questions about the news that week you will literally be hearing from the voices of White men; White men writing about issues that disproportionately impact people of colour.

If you do not see this as a problem then I strongly suspect you are reading the wrong blog.

The question, for those of us interested in media diversity, is what do we do now?

I do not believe the answer is to simply disengage from ChatGPT and hope it goes away. Instead we have to find ways to engage constructively and find ways for journalists, and other creatives, to use ChatGPT in ways which do not effectively silence, or further marginalises, already under-represented groups.

This is incredibly new territory and I don't think anyone has all the answers of how to do this, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

I am calling on journalists and creatives to join me in creating a manifesto, a simple set of guidelines, of how we should work with ChatGPT constructively and what we should be demanding of the tech companies who create these programmes.

This issue is too important to leave it up to or other people to work out the solutions. (My DM's are open @marcusryder)