FRIDAY 13 DECEMBER 2024

Dear Friend,

Our own research on trust shows some audiences think the owners of news companies often influence news coverage, and it's easy to see why, isn't it? But what about the owners and funders behind the AI tools journalists use? A new report from the Media and Research Center looks at this issue. Its author spoke to our contributor Laura Oliver for a piece that looks at the study's findings and at the implications for journalists who use these tools.

Today's newsletter also includes links to every episode of our bite-sized podcast series, hosted by our own Caithlin Mercer, as well as a chart from our recent report on digital platforms, an important job opening at the Institute, a farewell to some of our Journalist Fellows, and three pieces we've recently published on AI and the future of news.

Eduardo Su谩rez
Head of Editorial, Reuters Institute 
 

Explore our Digital News Report 2024 here | Check out data from your country | Download a PDF version | Explore our interactive | Lee el informe en espa帽ol 

Key research. A new report from the Media and Journalism Research Center explores the ownership of AI tools regularly used by news publishers for fact-checking and news-gathering, and the influence that these factors may have on how journalists work. The report shows that only 24 of the 100 companies covered shared information about their revenues and only 43 made available their total funding. 

The piece. Our contributor Laura Oliver spoke with researcher Sydney Martin, author of the report, who explained how funding and ownership may be skewing AI models or even helping to obscure the experiences of those who live in the Global South. "It is essential to understand who has a stake in these AI companies and how AI is being used," she says. "This will ensure the protection of consumers, democracy and truth."

This journalist wants you to try open-source AI. With the rise of generative AI, some are beginning to talk about open-source AI. But what is it, and how can journalists benefit from it? Marina Adami spoke to Florent Daudens, press lead for AI hub Hugging Face, about open-source AI and how journalists can benefit from using it. | Read the Q&A

How AI can help journalists connect with audiences. Our Director of Research, Richard Fletcher, was the keynote speaker at this year's Lorenzo Natali Prize award ceremony in Brussels. His speech focused on three key challenges journalists face today and on how artificial intelligence can help them address those challenges. | Read an essay version of the talk

How problematic is AI slop? Slop, low-quality AI-generated content, can be found both on social media and on websites purporting to be news outlets. Is it a threat to the quality of the news ecosystem? We spoke to three experts what news slop looks like in practice, and whether fears about it may be overblown. | Read the piece

The series. Our latest podcast series has just come to an end. Throughout ten episodes, our own Caithlin Mercer has hosted a show featuring portions of conversations from our seminar series. Here are the guests we've hosted and the topics we've explored. 

1. On democratic regression. Our first episode explored the critical role that journalists play when democracy itself is under strain with Sana Jaffrey from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Hugo Alconada Mon from La Naci贸n (Argentina); Adriaan Basson from News24 (South Africa). | Spotify | Apple

2. On reporting on the climate crisis. We spoke with two of the world鈥檚 leading climate experts: scientist Dr Friederike Otto and Kenyan environmentalist and activist Wanjira Mathai. | Spotify | Apple

3. On opportunities from AI. We heard insights from Bahareh R. Heravi from the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI and Hilke Schellmann, NYU professor and author of this book on AI鈥檚 role in hiring and firing. | Spotify | Apple

4. Handling sensitive stories. Our guests were award-winning journalist Connie Walker and Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist from Ghana. They spoke on the ways journalists can navigate ethics when approaching sensitive stories. | Spotify | Apple

5. On AI and disinformation. We explore how AI and disinformation have become intertwined. Our guests were journalist Peter Pomerantsev and Dima Saber from Meedan, which advocates for reliable and accessible information. | Spotify | Apple

6. On trauma and moral injury. Our guest was Professor Anthony Feinstein, who spoke on his work understanding moral injury and the mental health challenges faced by those reporting on conflict, trauma, and crisis. | Spotify | Apple

7. On platforming Indigenous voices. We looked at diversity in newsrooms. Our guests were Carmen Parahi, who led efforts to improve Indigenous coverage in New Zealand, and KC Schaper, who led a multilingual, multimedia project at the Washington Post. | Spotify | Apple

8. On ethics and AI in journalism. We explored the ethics of using AI in journalism with Arthur Grimonpont from Reporters Without Borders and Professor Bahareh Heravi from the University of Surrey. | Spotify | Apple

9. On newsroom diversity and covering gendered violence. We looked at how gender diversity in newsrooms shapes the stories that get told. Our guests were Marta Caparr贸s and Ferm铆n Elizari from Spanish sports news site Relevo and Rosamund Urwin, who covered sexual abuse for the Sunday Times. | Spotify | Apple

10. On the power of data visualisation. Our final episode featured two experts in data visualisation who spoke about the power of this medium to tell the stories behind the numbers. Our speakers were Alberto Cairo from the University of Miami and Simon Rogers from the Google News Lab. | Spotify | Apple 

On AI and audio | On authentic leadership | On the Digital News Report

A gap across the pond. According to our recent report on public attitudes towards platforms, people generally prefer platforms themselves to take the greater responsibility for their policies, rather than the government. But there are meaningful differences in public opinion between Europe and the United States. As the chart shows, there is a general preference for platforms to self-regulate on both sides of the Atlantic, but generative AI stands out as an exception to this trend.

• The figures. In Germany, the US, and the UK, opinions are more divided, with a significant portion of respondents favouring government oversight over self-regulation. In contrast, a slight majority of Spaniards still support platform-led regulation even for generative AI, but with government oversight receiving stronger support than for other platforms.

鈥淓lon Musk's lawsuits have a chilling effect on other potential critics, who may choose not to publicise their findings about hate speech on X when they know that this could result in them [being targeted] by the world's richest person鈥�/span>

Kate Conger
New York Times reporter and co-author of
Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter
Read our interview with her

Our Winter Showcase. On Wednesday we hosted the quarterly event of our Journalist Fellowship Programme, featuring presentations from Katharina Schell, Tom Edgington, Davide Lerner, Wai Yee Yip and Lameez Omarjee, who are leaving Oxford now. You should stay tuned to their upcoming projects, which cover labelling AI, Gaza news coverage, the true impact of fact-checking, the work of Taiwanese fixers and covering the just transition. In early January we'll open applications for our Fellowship. You'll find everything you need to know about the programme in this link.

鉁嶏笍 Director of the Reuters Institute. The University of Oxford is looking for a new Director for the Institute. Applicants should have either a world-leading research track record or experience of practising journalism to the highest standards. For an informal, confidential discussion, please contact Clare Bromley at Clare.Bromley@berwickpartners.co.uk. The closing date for applications is 17 January at 17.00 UK time. | Apply now

Read our research on:

Trust in news | AI and the Future of News | Journalism trends

 

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Today's newsletter was written by Eduardo Su谩rez, Matthew Leake, Marina Adami and Gretel Kahn.