Can AI rebuild trust in journalism?

When used thoughtfully, AI might give audiences a deeper look into how news is made—and maybe even a chance to influence it

Trust in media hasn’t exactly been stellar lately. It seems silly to think AI might be able to help, especially given all the problems with slop creeping into the ecosystem. But AI’s power to interpret content and remix it for different audiences could point the way to new types of storytelling—ones that maximize transparency and perhaps get readers and journalists to better understand each other.

More on this idea—and how it could be a path to restoring trust—in a minute, but before that a quick reminder that The Media Copilot’s latest AI course begins in just a few days. It’s the last cohort we’re offering this year in partnership with The Upgrade, so if you want the best possible training on how to use AI in PR and communications, don’t wait to sign up. More details below 👇

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One of AI’s most interesting features is “content remixing.” What if this were aimed at the journalistic process itself? (Credit: Midjourney)

Media’s trust crisis isn’t going away. Could AI help fix it?

Transparency comes up often whenever you’re talking about AI in journalism. That’s no surprise—the mission of journalism is to illuminate what’s happening in the world—and AI, being a relatively new and opaque technology, understandably invites scrutiny. But that scrutiny also creates an opportunity to potentially begin rebuilding audience trust, something that hasn’t been doing that well lately.

A recent Reuters Institute report exploring how AI is used in newsrooms revealed a clear pattern: the more AI was involved in creating content, the less people trusted that content. Just 12% of respondents said they were okay with content created entirely by AI. That figure rose to 21% for mostly AI-driven content, 43% for mostly human-produced material, and topped out at healthy (but, notably, not amazing) 62% for fully human journalism.

The new credibility crisis growing inside AI portals

The conclusion here is pretty straightforward: if trust is your north star—as it should be in journalism—you’d be better off keeping AI in the background. Yet that’s not what’s happening. If anything, the opposite is true: Newsrooms across the globe are leaning into AI. Heavyweights like The New York Times are leveraging AI more and more behind the scenes, and still others, including ESPN, Fortune, and CoinDesk, are actively using it to assist in crafting content.

Turning AI skepticism on its head

So what gives? Industry forces are clearly pushing AI adoption, but if that erodes trust, it will become a problem. That’s still an “if,” though, and the way to steer toward a better outcome is to double down on transparency.

The Reuters findings show a consistent trend, but it’s worth noting the question posed to audiences was pretty broad—asking generally about “AI- and human-led news,” without explaining exactly what role the AI was playing. Offering more context—like whether AI is sifting through video transcripts or generating bare-bones summaries that a human then builds upon—could change perceptions. Slapping “AI-assisted” on a byline doesn’t cut it. Done properly, deeper transparency could not only soften distrust, but possibly strengthen confidence in the process.