Turing’s Test 115
Monday was the second busiest day of 2017 for its emergency departments, with 426 people coming through the doors.
On Tuesday, that figure rose to almost 800 people in two days.
A total of 18 elective day cases have also been cancelled since Monday.
Debbie Kadum, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “This has meant
that we have had to implement our ‘hospital full’ protocol, using extra capacity where available to ensure our emergency departments
can continue to function.”
“We have also, unfortunately, had to cancel some elective day cases since
the beginning of the week, to accommodate medical patients and
we would like to apologise to anybody who has been affected while
we deal with this period of extraordinary demand on our services.”
“This is just one example of why we would like to separate our planned
and emergency care, to ensure that we can best treat as many people
as possible at times of high demand.”
“During this busy time, we would again ask people to please think
carefully about whether alternative local services, which can avoid
what can be a lengthy and stressful visit to hospital, might be more
appropriate.”
“I would again like to thank our incredible staff for all of their hard
work this week.”
61
This story, published on November 23, begins in a very similar format
to the Croydon Advertiser piece, with an emphasis on facts and figures
related in the standard, impersonal style common to much reporting, but
half of the story is given over to direct quotations from the CEO of the
hospital trust, providing an emphasis on a more personalised response.
In the immediate future, it is precisely the inability of software to interview respondents that marks the primary difference between local reporting via robot journalism and that conducted by people, but in terms
of reportage style, it is clear that the algorithm of news can be repeated
very effectively by software.
Following news of the RADAR experiment, stories appeared with
headlines such as “Robots can save local journalism”, and “Would you
care if this feature had been written by a robot?”
62
Yet, it remains the
case that algorithmic journalism, while capable of prodigious output, remains extremely limited in terms of its capabilities. At present, the number of stories bearing tag lines such as “Radar data reporter” remains
extremely small as publishers experiment with formats that can build
upon widely available – and reliable – data but also require templates
that go beyond sports statistics or quarterly financial reports. What is
more, the limited stories that appear also tend to be mediated strongly
by editorial staff working with RADAR. As Alison Kanski pointed out
in a story for PR Week as the trial was being launched, the stories were
typically being edited by journalists before being syndicated and were
Monday was the second busiest day of 2017 for its emergency departments, with 426 people coming through the doors.
On Tuesday, that figure rose to almost 800 people in two days.
A total of 18 elective day cases have also been cancelled since Monday.
Debbie Kadum, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “This has meant
that we have had to implement our ‘hospital full’ protocol, using extra capacity where available to ensure our emergency departments
can continue to function.”
“We have also, unfortunately, had to cancel some elective day cases since
the beginning of the week, to accommodate medical patients and
we would like to apologise to anybody who has been affected while
we deal with this period of extraordinary demand on our services.”
“This is just one example of why we would like to separate our planned
and emergency care, to ensure that we can best treat as many people
as possible at times of high demand.”
“During this busy time, we would again ask people to please think
carefully about whether alternative local services, which can avoid
what can be a lengthy and stressful visit to hospital, might be more
appropriate.”
“I would again like to thank our incredible staff for all of their hard
work this week.”
61
This story, published on November 23, begins in a very similar format
to the Croydon Advertiser piece, with an emphasis on facts and figures
related in the standard, impersonal style common to much reporting, but
half of the story is given over to direct quotations from the CEO of the
hospital trust, providing an emphasis on a more personalised response.
In the immediate future, it is precisely the inability of software to interview respondents that marks the primary difference between local reporting via robot journalism and that conducted by people, but in terms
of reportage style, it is clear that the algorithm of news can be repeated
very effectively by software.
Following news of the RADAR experiment, stories appeared with
headlines such as “Robots can save local journalism”, and “Would you
care if this feature had been written by a robot?”
62
Yet, it remains the
case that algorithmic journalism, while capable of prodigious output, remains extremely limited in terms of its capabilities. At present, the number of stories bearing tag lines such as “Radar data reporter” remains
extremely small as publishers experiment with formats that can build
upon widely available – and reliable – data but also require templates
that go beyond sports statistics or quarterly financial reports. What is
more, the limited stories that appear also tend to be mediated strongly
by editorial staff working with RADAR. As Alison Kanski pointed out
in a story for PR Week as the trial was being launched, the stories were
typically being edited by journalists before being syndicated and were