Fighting for journalism and profitable news media Thai cops in drag story is AI fake | Simon Calder leaves IndependentPlus ex-CNN journalist teams up with Paris Hilton for Tiktok documentary and UFOs and personalities fuel NewsNation's Youtube expansionGood morning from the team at Press Gazette on Thursday, 28 May. Press Gazette’s awards for the best digital journalism products (newsletters, podcasts, websites, etc.) are now open for entries. Find out more here. 💃 Publishers in the UK and US have fallen victim to another AI-generated hoax. The New York Post, The Telegraph, GB News, The Sun and Mirror are among titles that ran with the story of five burly Thai cops who donned sequin-encrusted dresses to go undercover and arrest a drug dealer. The story was made by an image of the cops looking like the least convincing drag queens in history. Sadly the story was too good to be true and the image was an AI-embellished fake. The series of short films total around 40 minutes and have been cut into Tiktok-friendly shorter segments. The films make money via Tiktok’s creator revenue share programme and are an intriguing test of whether longer form journalism can work on a platform designed around instant entertainment hits. The channel has gone beyond replicating its TV output to creating a number of YouTube native shows, again funded by the ad revenue split offered by the platform. |