The Future of Journalism (Studies) in the Age of AI

This panel, organised by Spui25, examines the range of approaches currently used in journalism studies to analyze AI and news. It aims to identify which approaches are proving most productive, which may be less useful, and which areas are being overlooked. The discussion will also focus on key trends in the development and use of AI in journalism, as well as the implications of these developments for research and education.

In recent years, rapid developments in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have presented both disruptive challenges and unique opportunities for a wide array of industries, including the media and information domains, such as journalism. In this media landscape, the narrative of “AI is transforming journalism” has gained considerable traction, often portrayed with a sense of inevitability. However, preliminary findings from academic research reveal a striking disconnect between this popular discourse and the on-the-ground realities in newsrooms. This panel aims to delve deeper into this schism, seeking to understand the nuances and subtleties that characterize the integration of artificial intelligence in journalism and its impact on professional roles.

As these AI technologies evolve and become more integrated into journalistic workflows, they are simultaneously transforming the way journalism is taught, studied, and conceptualized. For journalism research in particular, discussions about AI have thus far focused on what these technologies mean for journalists and their work, ranging from the ethics of using chatbots to craft news texts to questions about human displacement and the biases associated with applying LLMs in the way news organizations gather, filter, and disseminate information.

About the speakers

omás Dodds (moderator) is an Assistant Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is also a fellow in the AI, Media & Democracy Lab in the Netherlands, the Institute for Advance Study at the University of Amsterdam, and the Artificial Intelligence and Society Hub [IA+SIC] in Chile.

Seth Lewis is Professor, Director of Journalism, and the founding holder of the Shirley Papé Chair in Emerging Media in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon—a position he has held since joining UO in 2016. He has held visiting or affiliated fellow positions with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, among others. From 2020 to 2022, he served as the elected Chair of the International Communication Association’s Journalism Studies Division, the world’s largest scholarly group dedicated to the study of journalism.

Natali Helberger is Professor of Information Law at the UvA and a member of the board of directors of the UvA’s Institute for Information Law. Since 2019, she is one of the leaders of the ‘Human (e) AI’ Research Priority Area at the UvA. She is also founder and Principal Investigator of ‘Information and Communication in the DataSociety’- an interdisciplinary research initiative into the way AI and algorithms affect the role, impact and regulation of data-driven communication and information platforms

Nicolas Mattis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Amsterdam. He is a (computational) social scientific researcher with a particular interest in the interplay of new technologies, the (news) media, and democratic society. The majority of his research engages with responsible design practices for digital platforms.