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A bot tells the Financial Times if reporters quote too many men

You'll be hearing from more women in the Financial Times.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
A man reading the print version of the Financial Times.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary perusing the Financial Times. The FT says its readers need more input from women.

Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images

A bot could help make the news you read more diverse.

The Financial Times is using a bot called She Said He Said to warn journalists if they've quoted too many men in their articles.

"Editors and reporters are now becoming more aware of the gender split within their stories," an FT spokesperson said in an email. "As a result, editors are making an effort to try to increase the number of female voices in FT articles."

The FT covers many male-dominated industries, such as finance and technology. The paper found that only 21 percent of sources quoted in its articles were women, according to The Guardian. The bot reportedly analyzes pronouns and first names to determine a source's gender. Editors are alerted when they don't feature enough women in the stories they handle.

As the next step, the FT is planning a related initiative.

"We are testing the idea of integrating prompts into our [content management system] that encourages reporters and editors, before they have started writing a story, to make every effort to diversify the range of sources quoted," said an FT spokesperson.

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