By: Isaiah S. Showell, Follow South Jersey Multimedia Journalist/’What’s Good’ Host
GLASSBORO, N.J. – The Future of Journalism: New Models, Digital Transformation and the Public Interest conference was held Wednesday May 21 at Rowan University’s Ballroom Eynon Ballroom.
The event was made up of three separate panels. One panel discussed the expansion of non profit journalism, the second panel discussed the impact of digital transformation on New Jersey News, and the third panel discussed journalism in the public interest.
Michael Shapiro, CEO and founder of TAPInto, was one of the panelists who talked about news literacy.
“I think too often people gravitate towards sources they agree with versus sources providing an objective view of what’s going on,” said Shapiro. “It’s really important for people to understand what they’re reading, who’s behind it, and understand whether there’s an agenda behind it.”
Artificial Intelligence and its relationship to journalism was another topic discussed and according to Enrique Lavin of The Star-Ledger AI saves a lot of time for journalists; however, journalists have the option to reject it.
“Think of it as a tool,” said Lavin. “It’s not going to be original reporting; a human does original reporting.”
Chris Daggett, independent consultant for the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium (NJCIC), talked about the importance of local news and how the New Jersey State budget for 2026 cuts $3 million that NJCIC has used to fund many local news sources across the state including Follow South Jersey.
Watch the report below.
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