{"id":74872,"date":"2026-07-13T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/?p=74872"},"modified":"2026-07-13T11:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:01:32","slug":"hsuhk-research-explores-how-ai-is-transforming-historical-newspaper-preservation-and-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/hsuhk-research-explores-how-ai-is-transforming-historical-newspaper-preservation-and-research\/","title":{"rendered":"HSUHK research explores how AI is transforming historical newspaper preservation and research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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12 July 2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

A new study by researchers at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong (HSUHK) examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the preservation, accessibility, and analysis of historical newspapers.<\/p>

Authored by Dr Howard Song and Dr Cheung Kwok-wai, Associate Professors at HSUHK\u2019s School of Communication, and Jia Ziyun, the paper\u00a0Transforming Historical Newspaper Research and Preservation Through AI: A Global Perspective<\/i>, explores how emerging technologies can help libraries, archives, and researchers preserve and unlock valuable historical records. It was published in the international academic journal\u00a0Journalism and Media<\/i>, Volume 7, Issue 1 (2026).<\/p>

Drawing on international case studies, the research examines how AI technologies, including optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP), and large language models (LLMs) can significantly enhance text extraction, image restoration, metadata generation, and semantic enrichment. For example, advanced OCR systems using deep learning outperform traditional OCR, especially when processing degraded documents or complex layouts, while AI-powered OCR tools can process multilingual texts with layout analysis, reducing manual preprocessing. LLMs are used for post-OCR correction, significantly reducing character error rates, while image restoration employs generative adversarial networks (GANs) to remove noise, sharpen images, and reconstruct damaged visuals, improving OCR accuracy.<\/p>

Through qualitative case studies and comparative analysis of projects worldwide, this research demonstrates how AI not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of preservation workflows but also enables novel forms of computational inquiry such as cross-lingual analysis, sentiment detection, and discourse tracking.<\/p>

The findings underscore AI\u2019s transformative role in unlocking historical newspaper archives for both scholarly and public use, thereby fostering a deeper understanding of cultural heritage and historical narratives worldwide.<\/p>

The paper also discusses challenges associated with AI adoption, including bias, authenticity and the need for responsible implementation. It argues that human oversight remains essential for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of historical records.<\/p>

According to Dr Howard Song, such developments offer valuable lessons for Hong Kong and other Asian institutions seeking to preserve their newspaper collections. \u201cAI enables researchers to transform historical newspapers from static images into searchable and analysable datasets,\u201d he explains. \u201cAt the same time, it can make historical knowledge more accessible to educators, students, journalists and the wider public.\u201d<\/p>

The study forms part of an RGC-funded project,\u00a0Business News Treasures in the Vanishing Old Newspapers in Hong Kong<\/i>, led by Dr Song. The project seeks to document and preserve Hong Kong’s business journalism heritage, much of which is increasingly threatened by the deterioration, fragmentation and disappearance of historical newspaper collections. \u201cHong Kong has more than 160 years of business journalism history, yet many newspapers have ceased publication, and some archival materials have already been lost,\u201d notes Dr Song. \u201cPreserving these vanishing records has become an urgent priority.\u201d<\/p>

By making historical newspapers more accessible and usable, AI has the potential to democratise access to history and strengthen public engagement with cultural heritage, Dr Song adds. The research contributes to the growing fields of digital humanities and computational archival science while supporting efforts to preserve Hong Kong\u2019s historical newspaper legacy.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

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A new study by researchers at HSUHK underscores AI\u2019s transformative role in unlocking historical newspaper archives for both scholarly and public use, thereby fostering a deeper understanding of cultural heritage and historical narratives worldwide. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":74877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[70,10,71],"tags":[],"topics":[229,230],"month":[457],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74872"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74882,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74872\/revisions\/74882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74872"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=74872"},{"taxonomy":"month","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsu.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/month?post=74872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}