Automated sports coverage. Case study of bot released by The Washington post during the río 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018 olympics

Abstract

Introduction. Approximately 30 relevant international news media outlets already use artificial intelligence to generate automated journalism. The news agencies Associated Press and Reuters and The Washington Post stand out as pioneers in this field. Hypothesis and objectives. Bots and algorithms are increasingly used in sport coverage to take advantage of the large volumes of structured data and the cyclic pattern of sports competitions. The use of this technology is compatible with human editorial intervention. Methods. The study is based on the case study of the automated storytelling bot developed by The Washington Post to cover the 2016 and 2018 Olympics on Twitter. Results. The automated storytelling bot helps to streamline the coverage of the mega sporting events in real time: events schedule, results, medal tallies, reminders, etc. Conclusion. Artificial intelligence is effective in the coverage of sporting events and complements the work of reporters, as it frees them to focus on more creative activities.