06/03/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/03/2025 05:35
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how news organizations produce and distribute content. Newsrooms use AI to generate headlines, curate stories, automate writing, and optimize content for digital platforms. Rather than simply supporting journalists, AI is actively reshaping editorial workflows, impacting how newsrooms select, edit, and present information. In short, AI is reshaping the newsroom process and the news itself, which has broad impacts on the business of media and audience perception.
As AI takes on more editorial roles, it shifts control from individual journalists to automated systems optimized for engagement and scalability. Felix M. Simon's research on how the use of artificial intelligence shapes the way news gets produced and distributed explores this shift. Instead of relying on human judgment, experience, or what's best for the public, news decisions are now more focused on numbers, data, and technology. This change is part of a bigger trend of running things in a more controlled, predictable, and measurable manner.
Editors are using tools like algorithms and performance stats to decide what news to publish rather than just their instincts or values. This raises concerns that news is becoming too uniform, that editors have less freedom, and that journalism may not serve democracy as well as it used to.
Simon explains this type of change using the "gatekeeping theory." The theory views news production as a series of choices, like gates, where people decide what becomes news. In the past, journalists mostly made these choices using their judgment. Digital tools and social media platforms now play a significant role in shaping those decisions.
Simon's study analyzes AI's role in reconfiguring journalism processes. Based on 143 interviews across 34 news organizations in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, he identifies how and where AI integrates into news workflows. He structures his research around these central questions:
Simon's questions guide his investigation into how AI reshapes gatekeeping and journalism's role in the public sphere, revealing three key patterns. First, AI boosts efficiency by automating routine, time-consuming tasks such as transcription, translation, and content formatting. Second, it enhances effectiveness by enabling previously impractical tasks, like large-scale data analysis and personalized content delivery. Third, AI supports greater optimization, particularly in refining distribution strategies and managing dynamic paywall systems, ultimately transforming how news reaches and engages audiences.
In many cases, AI systems influence news judgment not by replacing human editors but by steering their attention through data-driven cues. These cues include story performance metrics, SEO recommendations, or algorithmic predictions of audience interest. These subtle nudges shape editorial agendas and shift newsroom priorities over time.
Additionally, AI's influence extends into ethical domains, where concerns emerge about bias in training data, transparency in automated decisions, and the implications of delegating journalistic choices to opaque systems. These challenges push newsrooms to assess the values embedded in AI tools and develop policies for their responsible use.
Further, researchers and practitioners continue to explore how AI alters productivity, quality, and editorial judgment. Simon's findings show that AI is not revolutionary but evolutionary and deeply embedded in journalism's digital transformation.
Notably, Simon's study shows how AI transforms journalistic gatekeeping and connects AI's rise to a broader trend of automation and efficiency in journalism. While effects vary and remain difficult to measure, AI is shifting decision-making power and newsroom practices and media leaders need to be mindful of these shifts and their implications.