SINGAPORE – As the field of artificial intelligence (AI) develops rapidly, survey respondents said they are skeptical of the use of AI in journalism.
In addition to tackling AI, the survey highlights that some of the key challenges facing news organizations in 2024 include record levels of news avoidance and news fatigue.
According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism's Digital News Report for Asia, released on June 21, only 36% of people surveyed said they would feel comfortable consuming news created by humans with the help of AI. Even fewer — just 19% — said they would feel comfortable consuming news created primarily by AI with human oversight.
The report warned news organisations to tread carefully amid concerns about how publishers experimenting with AI could affect public trust in the news.
“Although publishers are rapidly adopting AI to improve business efficiency and personalize content, our research suggests they should proceed with caution as the public will always prefer humans to remain in control,” the report said.
“We are more comfortable using AI for behind-the-scenes tasks such as transcription and translation, supporting journalists rather than replacing them,” the report added.
This is the first time the annual report has looked in depth at consumer attitudes toward the use of AI in the news. The report commissioned studies on AI in the US, UK and Mexico, as well as a broader survey of news consumption in 47 countries.
When it comes to news avoidance, about 39% of people surveyed (up 10 percentage points from 2019) said they sometimes or often intentionally avoid the news because they find it not only “depressing” but also “relentless.” This is also the highest level of news avoidance since the report was first released in 2012.
The report cites increased smartphone use, push notifications from numerous apps, and algorithm-based platform feeds as possible causes of this fatigue.
Another challenge facing news organizations is audience unwillingness to pay for news subscriptions: Only 17% of people surveyed in 20 wealthy countries said they paid for online news in the last year.
The report added that prospects for attracting new subscribers remain limited due to a continued reluctance to pay for news due to low interest and an abundance of free sources.
A further challenge is the fragmentation of news consumption across online platforms, driven by a major shift to video-based networks such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, all of which have become increasingly important for news since the COVID-19 pandemic created new habits.
YouTube is used by around 31% of viewers around the world to watch the news every week, while WhatsApp is used by around 21%. Meanwhile, TikTok is at 13%, surpassing Twitter (now rebranded as X) at 10% for the first time.
Audience concerns about fake news also rose three points to 59%, with false or misleading information rising most on issues such as politics, the economy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Ukraine. Concerns about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content on online platforms were highest on TikTok and X compared to other online networks, the report said.
The report also found that trust in the news has remained stable at 40%, but this is still 4 percentage points lower than at the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak.
