One key message from PRSA Tampa Bay’s annual Media Roundtable, held last week, is that AI and social video may be changing journalism, but the human element is more important than ever. The conversation was moderated by Lissette Campos, WEDU host of Florida This Week, and brought together journalists representing TV, digital, print, and business media:
- Anjelica Rubin, technology and innovation reporter, Tampa Bay Business Journal and Tampa Bay Inno
- Saundra Weathers, reporter, Spectrum Bay News 9
- Christian Blauvelt, assistant managing editor, digital engagement, Tampa Bay Times
- Gabriella Paul, reporter, WUSF News/Radio
- Courtney Robinson, anchor, 10 Tampa Bay.
Lissette Campos kicked it off by saying how important it was for journalists to meet with PRSA members. “Tapping into your experts gives us more content and reminds us of the important work of PR and media communications.”
Wary of AI Outside of Brainstorming Headlines
The first question for the panel was how AI was affecting the newsroom and how panelists connect with their audiences.
Anjelica Rubin said that the impact of AI on her outlet’s search traffic hasn’t been dramatic. She sees an opportunity for organizations and reporters to position themselves as an authoritative voice as an alternative to AI.
Saundra Weathers said, “We’re being very careful as journalists, because our voice and words matter.” She said that AI is “a tool not the end-all and be-all”: it can brainstorm headlines, but sources still need to be verified, and journalists shouldn’t let the technology do the thinking for them.
Christian Blauvelt framed the moment as an opportunity to “emphasize the human nature of what we do. The Tampa Bay Times needs journalism, not aggregation.” The opposite of AI is “original reporting, original voices, human perspectives: we are primed to survive as local journalists because we can tell stories about our communities that no one else can. We’re not helicoptering in. We live here.” The Tampa Bay Business Journal excepted, he saw an industry-wide loss of Google search traffic: “We are working on our own channels, our own newlsetters, building a more direct relationship with our subscribers.”
Gabriella Paul noted a natural skepticism among journalists: just because AI can be used doesn’t mean it should be used. She’s watching AI reshape the very job market she covers, including growing Gen Z suspicion of the technology, and how it factors into where young people choose to work. In public media, she said, hearing a human voice directly from a source is “a very pure, premium form of journalism,” and she wants to see outlets double down on human-generated content. She also raised ethical concerns tied to her environmental and political reporting, including AI’s increasing of energy costs. She said the technology has made her more cautious with her inbox: verifying that quotes are real, not hallucinated, and resisting the temptation to reuse a quote just because another outlet already ran it.
Courtney Robinson said she’s been worried about AI-manipulated images and video for years now, pointing to examples from the 2024 hurricane season when it was difficult to tell whether footage was real or AI-generated. In her newsroom, producers and editors as part of the fact-checking process now routinely ask whether a script or story has been run through AI. While her newsroom doesn’t publish AI-generated scripts or articles, she noted AI is used internally to optimize headlines.
Usage of Social Media
Lissette Campos then asked the panel a practical question for the PR pros in attendance: “which platform dominates for each of you, and where should pitches go?”
- FacebookCourtney Robinson named it alongside fan pages as part of her mix. Saundra Weathers called Facebook the place to “get down and dirty,” where communities go for the news they want and the news they don’t necessarily want. Christian Blauvelt made the case that Facebook still has real life left in it from a pure-traffic standpoint: an old-school, photo-led strategy (a photo post with the link placed in the first comment) has “clawed back” meaningful traffic for the Tampa Bay Times. Gabriella Paul grouped Facebook with Threads as part of her outlet’s toolkit for man-on-the-street-style interviews.
- Instagram was the most consistently cited platform on the panel. Courtney Robinson said it’s the platform she publishes to most, calling it the quickest way to reach her audience. Christian Blauvelt said Instagram is the Tampa Bay Times’ most engaged platform and a way for reaching younger readers, with about half of the views come from non-followers. Citing research that Gen Z is overwhelmed by news and craving explainers as an antidote to doomscrolling, the Times has templatized mini-shows like The Bay Brief(a weekly top-stories rundown) and Make It Make Sense (explainers on topics like redistricting, or why guava is associated with Tampa Bay). Gabriella Paul said Instagram is where her outlet reaches younger audiences and pointed to Your Florida, a dedicated, social-first team project targeting Instagram. Saundra Weathers joked that her station’s love of Instagram “shows our age,” and it’s where she personally posts and stays engaged. Anjelica Rubin said Instagram (along with TikTok) is part of the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s mix, though she noted her business audience differs from others in the room.
- Next Door is beloved by Courtney Robinson, pointing to the City of Tampa’s use of the platform as a model: addressing issues directly and creating original content that helps journalists find hyperlocal, community-driven stories. Gabriella Paul offered a more mixed take, calling Next Door “a gift and a curse”: valuable for crowdsourcing community voices and perspectives, but with obvious tradeoffs.
- TikTok is part of the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s platform mix alongside Instagram “but off the table entirely” for Gabriella Paul, noting that WUSF’s license is held by a public university.
- LinkedIn is where the Tampa Bay Business Journal dominates, Anjelica Rubin said. She keeps a LinkedIn tab open all day, using it to talk to sources, learn about stories, and share coverage and video content. The other panelists have done little with LinkedIn.
Speaking of video content, video streaming in general was on the rise. Courtney Robinson said streaming is a major emphasis at 10 Tampa Bay, where a half-hour continuation of the on-air show extends onto streaming, requiring additional video content and interviews to fill it. Saundra Weathers noted that a colleague’s video content outperforms the TV content for viewers/traffic. Gabriella Paul said streaming takes her “almost into a news influencer space”; she joked that she didn’t get into radio to get in front of a camera, but “ younger audiences want to consume news through a trusted person,” which she described as a way of combating misinformation.
To wrap up the panel discussion, Lissette Campos connected this back to PR strategy directly: genuine subject-matter experts, introduced through trusted relationships, bring “new voices for new perspectives.” She concluded, “You are helping that journalist do their job.”
Author Notes:
Jeffrey Henning
