AI in the Newsroom: Does the Public Trust Automated Journalism and Will They Pay for It?

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being adapted for news production tasks in news outlets worldwide. Whether the public trusts news outlets relying on AI to produce news remains unclear. Further, the economic implications (willingness to pay and ad acceptance) and moderators remain unexplored. We conducted a pre-registered 2 × 2 experiment with a quota-based nonprobability sample from Germany (N = 1,261). Respondents were exposed to vignettes about a fictional online news outlet. We manipulated the production process (generative AI vs. trained journalists, between-subject) and the topic covered (politics vs. entertainment, within-subject). Participants trusted outlets with AI-generated news less, particularly political ones. They were less willing to accept seeing ads shown by AI outlets and outlets that covered entertainment. Willingness to pay was not affected. We explored moderators: Individuals with the perception that AIs spread incorrect information were less trusting in AI-generated news. These perceptions did not moderate the relationship with willingness to pay or ad acceptance. The opinion climate did not moderate the effect of the content production process. In sum, AI in the newsroom may decrease trust and ad revenue of outlets. This effect might be exacerbated depending on audience characteristics. We discuss implications for theory, future scholarship, and media organizations.