# Integrating Chatbot Media Automations in Professional Journalism: An Evaluation Framework
## 1 Introduction  
The turn of the 20 th century was characterized by many things, but perhaps one of the most important and influential changes was the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) that revolutionized many different facets of daily life [1]. A variety of professional fields got affected by the arrival of these technologies, and a prime example of that was the media and news industry, a sector always renowned for its unique entanglement with technological developments [2]. The way these new technologies were incorporated into the workflow of modern journalists were many and spanned across various fields of application, including the likes of content production and communication between the journalist and the audience [3]. Perhaps one of the most intriguing uses found for these new technologies was that of automated conversational agents. Commonly referred to as \"chatbots\", these programs were capable of communicating with users via the use of natural language [4], and it didn't take long for the media industry to realize the potentially massive benefits these digital tools could have in the process of creation, and particularly dissemination, of news content. Their rate of adoption varies based on a multitude of factors, but it is likely to increase with the rise of compatibility and the existence of more related expertise in the field [5]. In accordance with those parameters, chatbots in the field of journalism started as a relatively rare commodity, but as the technology matured, more and more media organizations started implementing them in their list of means to capture audience attention. As the development of conversational agents started becomingmore and more focused over the years, and chatbot technology reached its commercial stage, the wider accessibility of online creation platforms allowed the average journalists to involve themselves in this interactive procedure and create new and useful tools, even without the need for coding skills or specialized ICT knowledge. Ever since the transition to WEB 2.0, there has been one attribute of this new and ever-evolving media landscape that has been considered particularly advantageous for its ability to better engage with audiences: interactivity [6]. Media organizations constantly seek more ways to captivate the attention of the public, and chatbots seem to fit that bill perfectly, seeing as they are a type of tool designed based on principles that center on communication and conversational intelligence [7]. To this end, this manuscript attempts to highlight and overview some of the most well-known and readily available contemporary digital tools that journalists have at their disposal for chatbot creation. At the same time, it aims to present an evaluation framework for said tools, which includes allocating them to certain categories based on the amount and type of interactivity that they offer, as well as judging their performance and accessibility in general. The selected programs are specifically targeted to not require any amount of prior coding experience on behalf of the journalist for them to fully function and create a finished product capable of interacting with audiences and establishing new communication channels. The motivation behind this work stems from the general question of whether it is feasible to integrate chatbots in professional journalism and, if so, under what circumstances. This question can be broken down into whether the existing platforms are intuitive and ready to be used by professional journalists to create chatbots and whether those bots are helpful, useful, and engaging for a broader audience. To that extent, it is important to design a framework for their evaluation that can set the directives of how they can be improved upon. This paper considers some of the most important platforms that are being used right now and presents a three-fold evaluation of them, addressing the scientific questions that have been set.