This paper argues that news media - mainstream and social - can be used to conduit disordered information - mis, dis and malinformation - into news eco-systems to influence opinions and events. Journalists are on the front line against "epistemic insecurity" whereby we feel we can no longer rely on what we are told. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews with journalists and civil society actors in the UK at the national level and asks about their perception of "disinformation" and any threat it poses. Using reflexive thematic analysis, it finds perceptions of both the term and the threat to be fuzzy. The perception of threat had increased following Covid-19, and news outlets have responded by upskilling journalists in data analysis and open-source techniques - and bringing verification to the fore. However, these are hampered by the rise of social media, staffing issues, the advent of artificial intelligence and ongoing adherence to the easily exploited liberal model of news. The paper concludes that greater awareness of the issues presented by disordered information is vital if the news media - social and mainstream - are to avoid being a conduit - and target - of it. If that continues, our epistemic security is at risk.
The integration of AI into journalism has generated growing debate about its implications for news production, yet empirical evidence from the Global South remains limited. This study examines how Chilean audiences perceive different degrees of AI involvement in journalism and how transparency, trust in news, and media literacy are associated with their willingness to consume AI-related news. Drawing on an online survey of 9,262 adults in Chile, the findings reveal a pattern of conditional acceptance of AI in journalism. While audiences strongly reject fully automated journalism, openness increases significantly when AI is framed as a tool supporting human journalists. In parallel, while transparency is widely demanded as a normative requirement, it does not, by itself, guarantee higher willingness to consume AI-generated news. Additionally, the study found that trust in the news and media literacy significantly correlate with audience openness to AI, operating interactively: higher levels of trust are associated with greater acceptance of AI only among individuals with medium or high levels of media literacy. Overall, the results suggest that AI tends to amplify pre-existing evaluations of journalism rather than reshaping them, highlighting the central role of institutional legitimacy and media literacy in shaping public responses to AI-driven journalism.
This study examines how acknowledging the assistance of artificial intelligence in news releases shapes journalists' perceptions of credibility and intentions to use such materials. Journalists in this study assessed a news release about a new pet food product, chosen as a neutral and non-controversial topic, and asked to evaluate it as if they were working in a sector where news about pet food was important to their audience. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, receiving either a version of the release that included or omitted an acknowledgement of AI assistance. Grounded in the CASA framework, source credibility theory, and machine heuristics, findings show that AI assistance lowers perceptions of both source and message credibility, and reduces journalists' willingness to use the release. Mediation analyzes indicate these effects stem from perceived risks of AI and the relational dynamics between journalists and PR professionals. Results highlight tensions between AI's efficiency benefits and transparency's credibility costs, underscoring the need for ethical governance and collaboration to sustain media trust.
The article employs the concept of recontextualization in conjunction with those of voice and media(tion) dispositive to investigate the centering of underrepresented voices in nonprofit, investigative, digitally native news discourse. In line with critical discourse analysis, recontextualization is viewed as the process of "casting into discourse" social events and practices, and thereby transforming them, where discourse is in a dialectical relationship with social contexts ranging from the situation of interaction to the social (here, journalistic) field. The analytic framework incorporates a qualitative analysis of metajournalistic discourse, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observation, and a discourse analysis of voices as discursive and rhetorical enactments of news content, genre and style choices and strategies. The illustration explores news discourse about (undocumented) immigrants in the Wisconsin dairy industry, produced by a well-established investigative nonprofit within the emerging field of engagement journalism in the US, Wisconsin Watch. The main findings reveal the uplifting of the immigrants' voices through a hybrid approach, which articulates new journalistic principles and values (public service orientation, community-driven news agenda) with a mixed but predominantly traditional news reporting style. This combination creates an arena where underrepresented voices may be heard on their own terms, contributing to a more balanced public debate.
Amid the growing presence of female journalists in Kuwait, women still face entrenched structural inequalities rooted in patriarchy, cultural norms, and institutional exclusion. This study drew on gendered organizational theory, gender performativity, and intersectional feminism to examine how gendered power dynamics influence the experiences of women in Kuwaiti newsrooms. A cross-sectional Arabic survey of 106 female journalists collected both quantitative and qualitative data, revealing five central themes: unequal access to opportunities, limited leadership representation, workplace safety concerns, the impact of nepotism (wasta), and cultural stereotypes. The findings suggested that gender bias is strategically concealed within supposedly neutral organizational structures and reinforced by broader social norms, including class, beauty standards, and family expectations. The study calls for intersectional accountability and comprehensive institutional reform to dismantle hidden hierarchies and support women's complete participation and recognition in the media sector. It also proposes a contextual expansion of Acker's theory through the inclusion of Butler's performativity to better capture how femininity is regulated and policed in media workplaces.
News media are a crucial source of secondary scientific information to the public, making it essential for informed societal and individual decision-making. Yet they are not without errors. To prevent the spread of inaccurate claims, many news organizations will publish corrections to earlier stories. How exactly this practice is perceived by the public, however, remains poorly understood. This study examines how corrections to science and technology news articles and epistemic explanations on the value of such corrections impact readers' trust in the author, article, and journalism. Participants (N = 178) were randomly assigned to one of four groups varying in the presentation of corrections and epistemic explanations in a 2 & times; 2 factorial design. Results revealed that corrections reduced trust in the author's perceived expertise. Epistemic explanations, however, improved trust in the article and author and mitigated some negative impacts of corrections on trust in journalism. Implications based on the results are discussed for journalists reporting on science and technology and science literacy.
This article examines how anti-press violence in Mexico has reshaped-journalists' understandings of professionalism by catalyzing a process of re-institutionalization. Building on cyclical theories that conceptualize journalism as discursively constituted through normative, cognitive, and performed roles, we analyze how an exogenous shock disrupts this cycle and how journalists subsequently realign it through three key discursive mechanisms: normative anchoring, collective autonomy for safety, and discursive distancing. Methodologically, the study draws on retrospective coding of 20 journalists' narratives describing disruption and realignment in professional norms, routines, knowledge, and control over work. The analysis captures a moment, approximately a decade into sustained violence, when adaptations had become widespread yet remained recent enough to be critically articulated as shared and no longer optional. Journalists describe the emergence of new routines and forms of knowledge that produce a collective model of autonomy oriented toward safety, anchored in enduring commitments to the public interest. These include practices such as collaborative reporting, regular check-ins, and digital localization. By contrast, practices perceived as undermining autonomy or violating public interest norms are discursively distanced from professionalism by framing them as externally imposed by threat, including self-censorship, reliance on official sources, and omission of sensitive information.
Military journalism-understudied and often overlooked-is critical to public understanding and democratic accountability in an era of U.S. military attacks on Venezuela and Iran. Yet there has been almost no research on U.S. military journalism practice. With new strains on military relations with the press, Reddit has emerged as a strategic platform influencing the United States Military, whose 2027 budget could be well over $1.5 trillion. Reddit is also experiencing significant growth in the journalism sphere, distinguished by its unique social media logic. Drawing on qualitative interviews with journalists and veterans, as well as a content analysis of journalist activity within military-related subreddits, the research explores how Reddit supports information gathering, audience outreach, and community relationship-building. Findings reveal that journalists use Reddit not only to identify sources and disseminate stories, but also to build trust and navigate complex military subcultures. Veterans, in turn, view Reddit as a space for surfacing systemic issues, sharing lived experiences, and influencing policy through grassroots engagement. These interactions highlight Reddit's evolving role in the digital news ecosystem-not simply as a distribution channel, but as a participatory space where networked publics shape journalistic agendas and contribute to institutional accountability.
