# Employing a Chatbot for News Dissemination during Crisis: Design, Implementation and Evaluation
## 4 The COVID-19 Reporter Chatbot: Design and Implementation
### Implementation  
The COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot aims to enhance journalists' day-to-day workflows. The platform supports the selection by journalists of existing web content from the BBC website, which is made available through the COVIDNFO Reporter interface and is accessed by users seeking specific information through an alternative narrative. Figure 2 depicts the interactions that take place with involved stakeholders (journalists and users). Journalists create content on the BBC website and also select the articles that can be made available through the COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot. On the other hand, users employ the COVIDNFO Reporter interface to access available information.  
The Quriobot platform ([[https://quriobot.com](https://quriobot.com)]([https://quriobot.com](https://quriobot.com))) was selected to deploy the COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot. The Quriobot is relatively simple to install and use, with development managed via its Control Room ([[https://control.quirobot.com/](https://control.quirobot.com/)]([https://control.quirobot.com/](https://control.quirobot.com/))). The chatbot is also able to gather information through interaction with users and thus improve interactivity. Although the COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot was employed through the URL offered by the Quriobot platform, it can also be embedded in a WordPress website, as well as other channels (e.g., Facebook Messenger). The COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot can be accessed at [[https://botsrv.com/qb/AUTH/COVIDNFO-CHATBOT](https://botsrv.com/qb/AUTH/COVIDNFO-CHATBOT)]([https://botsrv.com/qb/AUTH/COVIDNFO-CHATBOT](https://botsrv.com/qb/AUTH/COVIDNFO-CHATBOT)).  
The creation of a chatbot is a relatively straightforward process, since the Quriobot platform offers a number of ready-to-use templates that can be adapted to each developer's needs. It also offers the ability to construct a chatbot from scratch, which consists of a number of steps that define the Quriobot's behavior. The Quriobot Control Room conversational designer supports the build of proactive conversations, which are supported by conditional rules and different step types. It can also employ smart jumps between questions, based on answers provided by users.  
In the case of the COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot, 11 steps were programmed, as depicted in the flowchart in Figure 3. Initially, there is a welcome message, and the chatbot introduces itself. Then it asks the user if he/she wants to continue. If the answer is \"No\", the chatbot terminates. If the reply is \"Yes\", the chatbot presents a list of available topic categories, and then, upon selection, the selected category is displayed. Next, the user can select and display a selected news article. Then it asks if the user requires access to other information. If the answer is \"Yes\", the chatbot again displays the categories. If the answer is \"No\", the conversation is terminated. It is worth noting that all the  
Figure 2: User and journalist interactions with the COVIDNFO Reporter chatbot.  
questions the chatbot is called to answer have predefined answers. Various steps of the conversation with the COVINFO Reporter chatbot are included in Figure 4.  
The Quriobot platform supports ongoing modification and update of chatbots by adding more categories or available articles. It can be accessed from both PCs and smartphones. However, one limitation of this feature is that it cannot be programmed to display differently on different device types. Thus, news articles are displayed in a small-size window appropriate to smartphones, which is, as expected, not very convenient for PC users.