Artificial Intelligence and the Future of News: Agency, Power, and Authority

The rapid rise of AI and GenAI technologies has intensified longstanding tensions between economic precarity, technological innovation, and journalistic values. This book explores the impact of AI on journalism and media, moving beyond the ‘North’ and ’South’ dichotomy. Across diverse contexts in the Global North and South, AI is simultaneously heralded as a source of efficiency, personalisation, and newsroom survival, while also feared as a destabilising force that threatens jobs, erodes professional norms, and concentrates power in the hands of technology corporations. This volume delves into the challenges and opportunities that arise from AI, by foregrounding three interlocking themes: (i) the reconfiguration of journalistic agency, as decision-making increasingly shifts toward technological systems; (ii) the renegotiation of power within newsrooms, between journalism and the tech industry, and across global regions marked by an ‘AI divide’; and (iii) the contestation of journalistic authority, as human oversight, ethics, and accountability are defended as safeguards in an age of automation. By weaving these together, the book highlights both the similarities and the divergences between resource-rich and resource-constrained media environments. It further demonstrates that AI’s impact on journalism is shaped by institutional norms, political economies, and local realities. Without offering predictions, it maps the contested terrain of AI-enabled journalism, offering a critical resource for those seeking to understand and shape the future of news in the AI age. This volume will be an indispensable resource for journalists and researchers of media and information technology in the age of AI. It was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.