“The value of media in the digital age and the era of AI: how to capture it? The future of media monitoring” was the topic of a panel organized on the DGP stage, in which the following took part: Michał Fura, senior regulatory manager at BAT, Karolina Łuczak, communications director and spokesperson at Provident, Jan Pilewski, director of the public affairs department at Play, and Marcin Szczupak, CEO of Mediaboard Polska.
The development of technology affects not only the media themselves – the way content is developed or distributed, but also the possibilities of monitoring it. Just 20 years ago, monitoring was based on press clippings glued to A4 sheets, and finding the information you need was difficult. Today, glue and scissors are a thing of the past, giving way to algorithms. The problem has appeared elsewhere.
Quality is worth its weight in gold
As the discussion showed, the main challenge was the oversupply of information and assessing its credibility.
– The fact that we have new technologies, that the world has become fascinated by AI and innovations in communication, is on the one hand very good, but on the other – it also brings challenges. We have stopped checking the credibility of information and started looking only at what artificial intelligence generates for us. We have stopped being vigilant, we believe blindly – described Karolina Łuczak, emphasizing how important fact-checking is with the use of new technologies and the certainty that the data used and the information passed on are true.
Michał Fura noted that the development of technology over the last dozen or so years has significantly influenced many industries, but especially the media.
– The media are going through a time of huge transformation, they live in a world of oversupply of content and are looking for their business model. Especially those that remember the times when they set the tone and basically had no competition from online sources – he said. – Oversupply of information means that we are dealing with disinformation, low credibility of information, and the way content is consumed makes it difficult to separate valuable sources from worthless ones. There is a fundamental question: are media monitoring companies able to answer this? – he concluded.
Therefore, according to Jan Pilewski, we should consider how best to use tools such as artificial intelligence in media monitoring.
– It often happens that when we look through the media monitoring that we receive every morning, we have to wonder whether something that appears in it is true. In my opinion, such verification would be extremely beneficial. The course of thought that I have encountered so far is that artificial intelligence should perform the monitoring and create a synthesis from it. I think this is a bit dangerous. The safe option is to do fact-checking – he indicated.
Marcin Szczupak emphasized that although the technology is still imperfect, there is no other way than its development.
– We cannot return to the model in which we will keep an army of employees who will analyze materials, because we are physically unable to process this flood of information. So we have to use language models and technology. Is it perfect? Definitely insufficient for what customers ask for, and we can see that perfectly. Does it learn? Dramatically fast – emphasized the CEO of Mediaboard Polska.
The Czech-based company officially launched operations in Poland in early September. It deals with media monitoring and analysis, among other things.
The Holy Grail
The discussion covered a wide spectrum of the media market. Referring to the issue of monitoring content posted on social media, Marcin Szczupak emphasized how key analytics is here.
– If we look at social media, the issue of columns, i.e. volume, has never been important here, but rather capturing the Holy Grail, which is the cause-effect relationship. One entry in a social media can trigger an avalanche of traditional media and vice versa, it is about capturing where and who started it. And this is probably the most interesting thing in social media monitoring – he pointed out.
Jan Pilewski stated that if someone creates a tool that allows you to see how content is distributed in traditional channels, how it is read, for example, on a website, and how it is distributed in social media, it will be the Holy Grail for business.
– We care about both quantitative and qualitative analysis – said Michał Fura, emphasizing that the latter is the biggest challenge. – I do not believe, at least at this stage, that we will be able to do without people, without specialists who are able to assess sentiment and make a deeper interpretation of the information read. I think that the monitoring industry is really looking for this unique value that it can develop and contribute – he assessed.
Karolina Łuczak spoke in a similar tone.
– Monitoring social media is one thing, but at the same time, the issue of analytics and catching crises before they happen is very important. The ideal would be a tool that catches something at the very beginning that could explode, something that we should pay attention to and prepare a position on – she indicated. – For me, from the point of view of a person responsible for the company’s image, it is important to catch this potential danger that can spill from social media to traditional media and cause a real image crisis in the perspective of a few or a dozen hours – she emphasized.
She also drew attention to the broader importance of monitoring in business.
– The quality of monitoring is one thing; the ability to define what we actually need and what we will do with the information, how we will use it, is another. If done intelligently, in the long term it can have a huge impact on the company and its development – she noted.
The discussion also touched on the importance of monitoring in the case of a medium such as podcasts. This was emphasized by, among others, Marcin Szczupak.
Michał Fura pointed out the unpredictability of the development of spaces requiring monitoring. It may soon enter, for example, the metaverse.
“We meet there as avatars, we will read newspapers there, we can discuss various topics and brands there. Should we monitor this? How many such spaces will there be in the next 10 years? We are completely unable to predict this,” he said.
Paper like vinyl
Making predictions about the media market is extremely difficult. A dozen or so years ago, the imminent end of traditional media was predicted, which in principle have defended themselves, regardless of the transformation they are undergoing. Although, of course, some titles have disappeared.
– Publishers have never had it so hard. Developing a business model that allows them to maintain editorial staff and produce high-quality content is a huge challenge – said Michał Fura. – I keep my fingers crossed very strongly for quality media brands that, in this oversupply of information and disinformation, still maintain a certain level and make it possible for us to have some kind of anchor in terms of information and opinions – he defined.
Karolina Łuczak drew attention to the visible stratification of the media.
“On the one hand, we have space for very good, quality media with in-depth analyses written by fantastic journalists who devote their time to analyses, to research, who care about the quality of the content they produce. On the other hand, there are media created by artificial intelligence, which lay off journalists. It’s surprising how much this market is splitting up,” she said.
The issue of the existence of printed media is important for brand communication (and thus monitoring services), especially in some areas, when, for example, titles creating space for the cosmetics or fashion industry are disappearing. As the discussion showed, there is still a special place in the market for paper publications.
– Despite the fact that the printed press often has a much smaller reach than the Internet, from the point of view of people who manage companies, it has a much greater significance. If an interview with the CEO appears in print, it is perceived better than a publication on the Internet. We can talk about numbers, reach, reach and show all the analytics, but we respect the printed press much more – said Karolina Łuczak.
Marcin Szczupak pointed out that it is not only a matter of respect, but also the impact of printed information.
– The communication atomic bomb that we often observe very often starts with paper. The spread of information is much easier when it starts with the press. The press is not dead yet – he summed up.
And Jan Pilewski compared the printed press to vinyl records.
– We consume music from CDs, MP3 files or streaming platforms on a daily basis, but if someone is interested in music, they will appreciate vinyl. And it will be a bit like that with the media – most will use online information, but people who want to have contact with paper will simply have a subscription to certain newspapers. The press will be available not in kiosks, but in a subscription model – he concluded.
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