Episode 43
“… What I realized was that there was a lot of discussion about the ethics and the implications of generative AI on not just newsrooms, but the world at large. But no one’s actually been doing the actual work of figuring out how these tools could be used in a newsroom context.
And so that’s what I did.”
Jaemark Tordecilla is a Harvard Nieman Foundation for Journalism 2024 Fellow. He spent the last nine years as the head of digital media at GMA News in the Philippines, where he oversaw all online publishing and audience development activities and founded the network’s Digital Video Lab. Under his leadership, GMA News Online was recognized by the Reuters Institute Digital News Report as the top online source of news in the Philippines.
In 2021, Jaemark won a TOYM Award, one of the Philippines’ top honors for young civic leaders, for his work in digital journalism. He began his journalism career at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism where he was part of the team that won AFP’s Kate Webb Prize in 2009. He also helped train journalists from Myanmar living in exile in Thailand.
Coming from an ecosystem where journalists are regularly targeted for critical reporting and digital platforms are rife with misinformation, he is studying audience trust in media organizations and what newsrooms can do to win and strengthen trust and build engagement with their audiences. It was a pleasure to be able to speak to Jaemark about his work and hear insights he shared about the intersection of journalism and AI ethics.