Generative AI and the Future of News: Examining AI's Agency, Power, and Authority

ABSTRACT This special issue interrogates how artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI (GenAI), is reshaping journalism at a moment of profound uncertainty for the profession. The rapid rise of GenAI technologies, particularly following the release of tools like ChatGPT, has intensified longstanding tensions between economic precarity, technological innovation, and journalistic values. Across diverse contexts in the Global North and South, articles examine how AI is simultaneously heralded as a source of efficiency, personalization, and newsroom survival, while also feared as a destabilizing force that threatens jobs, erodes professional norms, and concentrates power in the hands of technology corporations. The collection foregrounds 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 together these studies, our special issue highlights both convergences—such as the importance of a “human-in-the-loop” model when adopting these technologies—and divergences, particularly between resource-rich and resource-constrained media environments. Collectively, these contributions demonstrate that AI’s impact on journalism is not deterministic but contingent, shaped by institutional norms, political economies, and local realities. Rather than offering predictions, this volume maps the contested terrain of AI-enabled journalism, offering a critical resource for scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand and shape the future of news in an age of intelligent machines.