The reality of using the ChatGPT in researching media, applied to students, researchers, and practitioners

Abstract

This paper contains the results of a study conducted in the second half of 2023 to identify the possibilities and algorithms of using ChatGPT toolkit in academic texts. In the concept of the mentioned direction, the respondents were sampled according to various criteria, the questionnaire covered 249 people.

The purpose of the study is to determine the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the toolkit, methodologies of application, advantages and disadvantages of ChatGPT in academic media research. The main idea (hypothesis) is the existence of a statistically significant relationship between the qualifications, age and intentions of ChatGPT users in academic media research, as well as a framework to explore the potential of AI in conducting research without the use of human resources.

The author addressed universal methods for assessing qualitative categories of information, content, informativeness, usefulness, value, and opportunities for the named AI application in scientific research. 

The most important findings: the survey showed many advantages of ChatGPT for academic media research, the most important of which is saving time and effort when searching for information. Most participants confirmed they are familiar with ChatGPT and work with it on the Internet. Still, they do not support the opinion that using this chatbot will eliminate the need for human resources when conducting media research. In the results, the author notes that there is no significant relationship between the use of ChatGPT to solve scientific problems, and the age and gender of the survey participants influence the opinion regarding eliminating human presence in scientific research. The author recommends using Chat GPT to improve research language, translation, and summarization of information, but not to provide information, sources, or references.