Study: AI in Journalism Lowers Readers' Trust Levels

3 months ago 64

December 15, 2024 | 05:14 pm

Illustration of AI or artificial intelligence. Doc. Shutterstock

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The latest research from the University of Kansas (KU), United States, reveals the impact of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism. The greater the use, the more the level of reader trust in the credibility of the news decreases, even though human contributions remain.

The study, the results of which have been published in the journal Communication Reports and Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, highlights the importance of transparency in the use of AI in news writing to maintain reader trust. The research was led by Alyssa Appelman and Steve Bien-Aimé from KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

They examined how readers assess the involvement of AI in news articles. In an experiment conducted with Haiyan Jia from Lehigh University and Mu Wu from California State University, the research team gave articles with five variations of bylines, ranging from 'written by staff writer' to 'written by artificial intelligence', to a number of respondents.

The results showed that readers tend to doubt the credibility of the news if they know there is AI involvement. “People have varying understandings of what AI is, and when we’re not clear about what AI does, they’ll fill in the gaps with their own assumptions,” Appelman explained in the study, as quoted by Earth.com, Saturday, December 14, 2024.

In this study, even though some articles included human contributions, readers still considered the articles less credible if AI was involved. This suggests that while AI can speed up the newsmaking process, readers prioritize transparency and clarity about who is actually responsible for writing the article.

The researchers also found that readers prioritized the extent of human involvement in the article. “The main thing is not whether it’s AI or humans, but how much work is done by humans,” Bien-Aimé added.

These findings underscore the importance for journalists to be more transparent in explaining the role of AI in the newswriting process. This is because ambiguity or lack of disclosure about AI involvement has the potential to reduce readers’ trust in the news they consume.

Appelman and Bien-Aimé’s findings also show a gap in readers’ understanding of journalistic practices. AI involvement, corrections, ethics training, or even bylines are often interpreted differently by readers than journalists intend. To bridge this gap, the researchers emphasize the need for journalists and educators to better communicate the details of how AI is used in news production.

Editor's Choice: U.S. Embassy Preps Grant Fund for Preservation of Indonesian Culture

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