The AI turn in journalism: Disruption, adaptation, and democratic futures

Abstract

In this essay, we argue that, unlike previous changes in digital media technologies over the past few decades, this AI “turn” in journalism forces us to rethink journalism’s identity and its relationship with audiences. While AI complicates and challenges some existing professional, social, political, and economic structures, it also offers new ways to realize desired journalistic objectives that were previously considered to be impractical, if not impossible. Drawing on four orienting ideas—adoption and hype, power and dependency, audiences and democratic implications, and education and empowerment—we unpack the implications of this AI turn in journalism and the consequences for the future of the journalistic field.