Power Prompting

A better prompt is just a better assignment. This video gives journalists a clear understanding of the best practices for prompting ChatGPT: role, task, context, output, limits, and check. The demo starts with a weak prompt, then rebuilds it into a useful reporting instruction for a city council agenda item.

What you’ll need:

• A ChatGPT account
• A document, agenda item, note, or article to practice on
• A reporting question you want help clarifying

What you’ll learn:

• What makes a prompt useful
• How to structure prompts for reporting tasks
• How to ask ChatGPT to identify uncertainty and missing facts
• How prompting can point you toward the next reporting step

Who this video is for:

Journalists, editors, producers, newsroom leaders, and educators who want practical ways to use AI in daily newsroom work. No technical background is required.

Key takeaway:

Better prompts give ChatGPT a clearer job, which leads to answers that are more useful, specific, and easier to check.

Built by OpenAI:

Created by OpenAI Academy to help news professionals use AI confidently while keeping editorial judgment, sourcing, and verification at the center.