AI Adoption by UK Journalists and Their Newsrooms: Surveying Approaches, Applications, and Attitudes

Abstract

This report is based on a survey of a broadly representative sample of 1,004 UK journalists. It covers whether and how they use artificial intelligence (AI) professionally, the extent to which they see it as a threat and as an opportunity for journalism, the levels of concern they have about various potential ethical consequences of the use of AI in journalism, and how AI usage is linked to aspects of their job satisfaction. Differences in journalists’ AI use and attitudes by gender, age, reporting beat, seniority, and media formats worked with are also described. In addition, the report reveals journalists’ perceptions of how deeply AI is integrated into their main newsroom’s processes, whether their employer provides AI training and guidelines/protocols and uses third-party and/or in-house AI tools, and their employer’s general stance towards AI and plans for its future integration. Differences in employers’ approaches towards AI by size, public/private ownership, and media cultural background are also mentioned.