New study helps explain the gap in credibility for artificial intelligence-journalists
A new study has found that audience evaluations of emerging media are tied not only to attitudes toward new technologies, but also to the institutional authority audiences attach to journalism.
The findings were featured in “Explaining the AI-journalists credibility gap: generalized and source-specific judgments of news credibility” by University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Journalism Associate Professor Matthew Barnidge and Seungahn Nah, (UFCJC) Dianne Snedaker Chair in Media Trust and research director for the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology. The article was published in AI & SOCIETY on Sept. 5.
The authors examined why audiences evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) generated news differently from professional journalism. They used a two-wave online survey of adult internet users and bifactor modeling for the study.
According to the authors, “Communicative factors, including AI-related news exposure and discussion, were more closely associated with generalized credibility orientations, whereas trust in journalists was the strongest predictor of source-specific differences between AI-generated and professional news.”
They add, “Decomposing this professional–AI gap showed that slightly more than half corresponded to the professional–citizen component, suggesting that the gap reflects both human authorship and the institutional authority attached to professional journalism.”
Category: AI at CJC News, College News, Trust News
Tagged: AI Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology Journalism Matthew Barnidge Seungahn Nah
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