Designed to strengthen journalistic capacity, the training focused on the responsible use of generative AI, enhancing digital verification skills, and supporting more in-depth investigative reporting.
maritimeposts.com/ – Suara.com, in collaboration with the Local Media Community (LMC) and with full support from the Google News Initiative (GNI), organized the “AI Tools Training for Journalists” workshop at Amaris Hotel Pettarani, Makassar, South Sulawesi, on February 2–3, 2026.
This Makassar session marked the fourth workshop in the series, following previous editions in Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya.
A total of 30 participants—journalists and newsroom staff from Makassar and surrounding areas including Bulukumba, Parepare, Maros, Luwu, and others—took part in the training.
The workshop featured two experienced trainers: Elga Maulina Putri, Social Media Coordinator, and Muhammad Yunus, Editor of Suara Sulsel. Both are alumni of the Google News Initiative’s Training of Trainers (ToT) program on AI for Journalists.
Designed to strengthen journalistic capacity, the training focused on the responsible use of generative AI, enhancing digital verification skills, and supporting more in-depth investigative reporting.
Editor-in-Chief of Suara.com, Suwarjono, emphasized that AI presents both challenges and opportunities for digital media. He pointed to the emergence of AI Overviews, which allow readers to obtain information summaries without clicking through to news websites.
“For audiences, AI Overviews make it easier to access quick information summaries,” he said. “But for news media, this becomes a challenge—how do we ensure audiences still visit and click our websites?”
According to Suwarjono, the presence of technology that simplifies information access is unavoidable.
The key question is how news organizations respond—by encouraging journalists to adapt their storytelling approaches and strengthen engagement with audiences, particularly younger generations.
In response to these challenges, the Makassar workshop introduced a range of essential tools for journalists, including Google Trends to track issue dynamics, Gemini for creative graphic processes, Pinpoint and NotebookLM for in-depth research, as well as image and video verification tools.
The training opened new perspectives for participants. One of them, senior Makassar journalist Kamaruddin Azis, said that despite decades of experience in journalism, the workshop deepened his understanding of AI.
“NotebookLM is incredibly powerful—it can help create infographics, videos, even voice content. Today was the first time I truly understood how it works in detail. Age is not a barrier to learning AI,” he said. He also plans to share this knowledge with citizen journalists to ensure AI use remains aligned with journalistic ethics.
The experience underscored an important point: AI is not inherently a threat to journalism, but a tool that must be understood and managed.
As audience behavior continues to shift amid digital disruption, media organizations are now urged to more seriously develop platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, while simultaneously adapting to AI technologies.
“AI does not kill journalism,” Suwarjono stressed. “What can kill journalism is journalists’ unpreparedness. Even high-quality content will not be read or have impact without proper distribution and algorithms that connect it with readers.”
“The real danger is when journalists refuse to learn AI or technology at all.”
With the right approach, AI can instead strengthen journalistic work—streamlining processes, improving reporting accuracy, and helping media better understand audience needs through content analysis.
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Source: Suara.Com
Note: The translation was supported by AI