Journalistic Agency and Power in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

AI integration into the news value chain recalibrates the division of labor, changing professional habits, institutional norms, and journalistic production processes. Journalists' sharing of editorial authority with opaque algorithmic systems, or outsourcing thereof, can alter the power dynamics in the production of public knowledge, potentially undermining journalism’s position as an independent watchdog. This work maps and critically discusses AI implementation in different configurations and intensities to illustrate how AI use in news production shapes the power dynamics in journalism. We outline three idealized but realistic scenarios of AI implementation, each representing varying degrees of technological integration, whereby decision-making authority and power progressively shift to technological agents. Based on structuration theory, new institutional theory, and theories of communicative agency in technology, we detail the changes in journalistic practices of knowledge production to highlight the intersectionality and interdependency of journalistic ontology and epistemology. This contribution aims to sensitize research and news practice to the consequences of AI use for journalistic epistemology and ethics.