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Professionals · code 2642

Journalists

AI can write the match report. Getting someone to tell you what really happened is still journalism.

The ILO files this under journalists. AI could take a fair chunk of seven of the ten tasks, mostly checking, editing and picking copy. Interviewing people and writing reviews are furthest from its reach.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Journalists research, investigate, interpret and communicate news and public affairs through newspapers, television, radio and other media. Tasks include - (a) collecting local, national and international news through interviews, investigation and observation, attending public events, seeking out records, reviewing written work, attending film and stage performances; (b) collecting, reporting and commenting on news and current affairs for publication in newspapers and periodicals, or for broadcasting by radio, television or webcast media; (c) receiving, analysing and verifying news and other copy for accuracy; (d) interviewing politicians and other public figures at press conferences and on other occasions, including individual interviews recorded for radio, television or webcast media; (e) researching and reporting on developments in specialized fields such as medicine, science and technology; (f) writing editorials and commentaries on topics of current interest to stimulate public interest and express the views of a publication or broadcasting station; (g) writing critical reviews of literary, musical and other artistic works based on knowledge, judgement and experience for newspapers, television, radio and other media; (h) selecting material for publication, checking style, grammar, accuracy and legality of content and arranging for any necessary revisions; (i) liaising with production staff in checking final proof copies immediately prior to printing; (j) selecting, assembling and preparing publicity material about business or other organizations for issue through press, radio, television and other media. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Journalist - Newspaper editor - Newspaper reporter - Sports writer - Sub editor - TV/radio news producer - TV/radio news reporter, Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Public relations officer - 2432 - Author - 2641 - Book editor - 2641 - Photo journalist -3431 - Camera operator - 3521

  • journalist

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

46 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 3

390 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 10 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 53.6 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 53.6 = 46.4.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 3”: Most of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 28.9 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Journalists 46

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Routine news copy.
  • Editing and checking.
  • Research and summaries.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Investigating and finding stories.
  • Interviews.
  • Judgement about what matters.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Verifying deepfakes and AI content.
  • AI search taking traffic from news sites.
  • Newsletters and independent journalism.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: High

61 could do without you

It could take over a lot of this job on its own. It could help with 70 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

29 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 15 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

29 How
hands-on
15 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 24.1 · hand skill 16 · cramped spaces 5.4 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 67, against an average of 54. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 67

    Liaising with production staff in checking final proof copies immediately prior to printing

    Medium
  2. 64

    Receiving, analysing and verifying news and other copy for accuracy

    Medium
  3. 62

    Selecting material for publication, checking style, grammar, accuracy and legality of content and arranging for any necessary revisions

    Medium
  4. 60

    Collecting, reporting and commenting on news and current affairs for publication in newspapers and periodicals, or for broadcasting by radio, television or webcast media

    Medium
  5. 56

    Selecting, assembling and preparing publicity material about business or other organizations for issue through press, radio, television and other media.

    Medium
  6. 53

    Researching and reporting on developments in specialized fields such as medicine, science and technology

    Medium
  7. 51

    Writing editorials and commentaries on topics of current interest to stimulate public interest and express the views of a publication or broadcasting station

    Medium
  8. 46

    Collecting local, national and international news through interviews, investigation and observation, attending public events, seeking out records, reviewing written work, attending film and stage performances

    Low
  9. 42

    Writing critical reviews of literary, musical and other artistic works based on knowledge, judgement and experience for newspapers, television, radio and other media

    Low
  10. 37

    Interviewing politicians and other public figures at press conferences and on other occasions, including individual interviews recorded for radio, television or webcast media

    Low

10 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
70
AI does it for you
61

Sidekick wins, by 9 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2124

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

66
34

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 2.58% of the conversations.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should journalists be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Parts of the job are exposed. Checking proofs, verifying copy, editing, reporting, publicity and specialist reporting are rated Medium; investigation, reviews and interviews are Low. AI takes on routine copy and editing; original reporting stays human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 62. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →

A closer look

There is a written profile for a job in this group.