SEARCH EVENTS
Report Launch: Generative AI & Journalism
February 17 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm AEST
Join us for the official launch of our comprehensive report Generative AI and Journalism: Content, Journalistic Perceptions, and Audience Experiences.
Generative AI, a technology that has captivated global attention in 2023, is reshaping journalism. From AI-generated text and images to videos and audio, this technology offers new ways to automate, enhance, and even disrupt traditional journalistic practices. While its potential is vast, it also raises complex questions around ethics, bias, and the future of news production.
This new report brings together six discrete research and engagement activities which span multiple countries over a three-year period (2022-24) and focuses on AI in journalism within three broad domains: AI-generated content in journalism, journalists’ perceptions of and use of AI in journalism, and news audiences’ perceptions of and reactions to this technology being used in journalism.
At this launch, report authors will present key insights, and feature a discussion on the implications of AI in journalism, focusing on the practical applications, challenges, and ethical considerations that journalists and news organisations must navigate. Participants will have the opportunity to explore how AI is reshaping storytelling, content creation, and audience engagement, as well as the emerging policies and best practices for its responsible use.
Whether you’re a journalist, media professional, academic, or simply interested in the intersection of AI and news, this event will provide a comprehensive overview of how Generative AI is transforming journalism and what it means for the future of news production.
ABOUT THE REPORT
This output joins other reports that focus on AI in journalism (including those produced by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the BBC, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and the Centre for Media Transition at UTS) but largely adopts a distinct focus on multi-modal, visual AI and offers a broader scope over multiple domains (production, editing, and audience reception and interpretation). It also complements with depth, nuance, and richness the breadth of other survey work focused on AI and journalism, particularly in the domain of news audiences.
This report aims to familiarise the reader with a wide array of AI in journalism use cases, provide grounding on the legal and ethical issues that journalists and audiences identify regarding this technology within journalism, and reveal news audiences’ expectations regarding how this technology should or should not be used. The report ends with a series of questions for journalists and news organisations to consider as they work through their experimentation with and guidelines around AI use in journalism.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
T. J. Thomson, RMIT University
Dr T. J. Thomson is a senior lecturer at RMIT University and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow. As a former visual journalist and editor, T. J. brings a depth of media industry experience and expertise from an international scholarship on visual media and visual communication. He co-leads The News, Technology and Society Network at RMIT University and is an affiliated researcher of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. He is also the lead guest editor of a special issue in Digital Journalism on “Reimagining visual journalism theory and practice in the digital age” (co-edited with Ryan J. Thomas, Iuliia Alieva, and Shangyuan Wu) that is expected to be published in 2025.
Ryan J. Thomas, Washington State University
Dr. Ryan J. Thomas is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Production and Director of Graduate Studies in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. His teaching and research center on issues pertaining to journalism and democracy, journalism ethics, and the sociology of news production. He has won a variety of awards recognising his research, teaching, and academic service, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Krieghbaum Mid-Career Award. He is the member of the editorial boards of four journals and, from January 2025, the editor of the Journal of Media Ethics.
Michelle Riedlinger, Queensland University of Technology
Michelle Riedlinger is an associate professor in the School of Communication, chief investigator with the Digital Media Research Centre and an affiliated researcher with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Her research focusses on emerging environmental, agricultural and health research communication practices, platformised fact checking, and roles for “alternative” communicators of scientific research. She co-leads the Global Engagement Theme in the Global Journalism Innovation Lab and is the editor of the international Journal of Science Communication.
Phoebe Matich, Australian Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at QUT
Phoebe Matich is a post-doctoral research fellow at the QUT node of the ADM+S centre who is examining generative AI and authenticity in journalism and human rights media. Having completed her PhD studies at QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre in 2024, her research considers how journalists represent reality and social issues. Phoebe is particularly interested in how journalists strive to achieve normative goals like objectivity in practice amid conjunctures like misinformation, radicalisation, or generative AI. In these contexts, she considers the nexus between journalism practice, discourse, politics, and audience trust to examine best and worst news practices, and opportunities for improvements.
