Journalism Today. 3 Jan 2025

By Matthew Leake, Eduardo Suárez and Marina Adami

🗞️ 5 trends to keep an eye on in 2025 

1. News influencers play a bigger role

News influencers such as the US’ Joe Rogan, Britain’s James O’Brien and France’s Hugo Décrypte increasingly play an outsized role in the news media ecosystem. Our Digital News Report analysis found that audiences pay attention to influencers who often share partisan perspectives (both left and right) and are typically male. 

Three independent female news influencers shared with our own Gretel Kahn why they left their careers in mainstream news organisations and what they have had to endure going solo. “I check my facts and I use the methodology of a journalist. But I am not objective, and I am very honest about my views on the world and especially about the values I stand for,” says French influencer Salomé Saqué.

2. AI is increasingly present in the public sphere

AI is introducing new layers to news production and distribution, and journalists and audiences are still figuring out how to deal with them. Our own Marina Adami interviewed several experts on the proliferation of AI ‘slop’, low-quality, mass-produced content designed for clicks, and what it means for journalism. David Caswell likened slop to spam. “In the early days of email, it was completely out of control. But then we learned how to take care of it,” he said. 

The emergence of AI-generated news avatars is also an increasingly common phenomenon. Marina spoke to some technologists behind these avatars, who shared initial and potential audience reactions. These avatars often resemble young, attractive women, reproducing sexist stereotypes. However, accessing news using generative AI is still in its infancy: just 5% of people across six countries said they used it this way.

3. Journalists are suffering democratic backsliding and reporting on it

There have been many examples of journalism shining a light on the forces behind the erosion of democracy. A piece by our contributor Benjamin Bathke focused on how investigative news site Correctiv exposed plans by right-wing politicians to deport millions of Germans. This investigation brought nationwide demonstrations against the plot. 

In Georgia, a ‘foreign agents’ bill, widely seen as a threat to press freedom, led to mass street protests, but also threats towards many outlets both covering the unrest and those which would be subject to the law wrote our own Katherine Dunn. Nino Zuriashvili of Studio Monitor said she had been harassed and her phone conversations monitored. 

In India, far-reaching ‘IT rules’ are “an apparent move to exercise control over media publications,” under the pretence of combating ‘fake news’ about the Modi government, one analyst told our Acting Director Mitali Mukherjee. We also covered concerns about democratic backsliding in Italy in this piece by our own Marina Adami, particularly concerning media pluralism. Public broadcaster RAI is at the centre of these concerns, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s raft of senior appointments at this outlet sparking concerns about editorial independence.

4. Working conditions for journalists are worsening

Journalism is not providing a viable career for many who are struggling to make ends meet in the profession they love. Our own Gretel Kahn published two pieces exploring the hardship many in the news industry around the world are facing. She heard from 25 freelancers, who spoke about their struggles with finding work in a saturated and rapidly changing market, declining rates of pay and mental health. “The state of the freelance industry right now is a hot mess. People seem to think that words are cheap. It doesn't seem to matter that you come with 20-plus years of experience,” one freelancer told her. 

Young journalists are encountering similar hurdles even before they leave the very costly journalism schools which are often seen as the safest route into the industry. Ten journalists opened up about challenges securing internships, having to emigrate for work, competing with those from wealthy backgrounds, and the never-ending task of searching, applying and interviewing for roles unsuccessfully. “I had a lot of experience as a journalist through internships but that didn’t get me closer to a real job. The only job offers I got were more internships,” one Spanish journalist told us.

5. Journalists are operating in a changing digital environment 

Most online news users cite platforms, including social media, search engines and aggregators, as their main gateway to news, according to our Digital News Report. For many news outlets this means they are having to constantly adapt to a shifting landscape in order to reach audiences in the places where they are accessing news. 

The evolution of X under Elon Musk’s ownership has led some reporters and outlets to doubt this platform’s value to journalism. When the platform was banned in Brazil over non-compliance with national laws, some news outlets already felt it had declined. “When Twitter was blocked, we were already frustrated with it.” Agência Pública’s Natalia Viana told our own Gretel Kahn. Two authors of a book on X under Musk spoke to Gretel about the platform and the prospects of Bluesky as a Twitter alternative. “The real test for Bluesky will happen now, when you start to see it becomes a mainstream platform and a place where my mom or dad might congregate,” said Ryan Mac.

• You’ll find more on our work in this piece with many more insights relevant in the year ahead.

☕ Coffee break

Reuters and Gannett are launching a content bundle. The international newswire and the US’ largest local newspaper company are teaming up to offer readers access to global coverage from Reuters and local news from the USA Today Network. | Read

Nick Clegg is leaving Meta’s global policy team. Clegg, a former leader of the British Liberal-Democrats, has worked at the social media giant since 2018. He’s being replaced by Joel Kaplan, a Republican who was White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush and who has strongly argued against restrictions on political speech. | Read

Journalism and press freedom organisations have called for the release of jailed Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who is imprisoned in Iran. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the International Journalism Festival joined in calls for Sala to be immediately freed. | Read

AI-generated slop found its way into some Christmas playlists this past holiday season. Listeners spotted some strange-sounding versions of Christmas favourites on YouTube and Spotify compilations, including tracks that paired the melody with lyrics of a different song and covers by artists that seemed not to have produced much else. These were sometimes paired with formulaic bios and AI-generated imagery.  | Read

📊 Seven findings from our research that might surprise you 

1. On generative AI. As the chart above shows, only 12% of Britons trust news media to use generative AI responsibly. The percentage is much higher in Argentina and the US (30%). | Learn more 

2. On leadership and race. According to our factsheet on race and news leadership, none of the most popular news brands in Brazil have a top editor of colour despite the fact that 57% of Brazilians and 34% of working journalists are people of colour. | Learn more 

3. On news overload. Up to 39% in our global sample say they feel worn out by the amount of news, 11 points higher than five years ago. The percentage has grown substantially in countries such as Spain (+18) and Brazil (+16). | Learn more 

4. On AI and elections. Our analysis on how ChatGPT-4o and Perplexity.ai responded to questions about the UK election showed that most of their responses were factually correct. They frequently provided sources for their responses and linked back to news outlets and official sources. | Learn more 

5. On reader revenue. The percentage of news subscribers paying full price is very small in European countries such as Spain (26%), Denmark (25%) and France (21%). | Learn more 

6. On news avoidance. When asked about their company’s focus, 54% of the publishers we surveyed for our yearly report acknowledged that their outlets are focused on maximising attention and only 37% said their main goal was being respectful of people’s time. | Learn more 

7. On platforms’ biases. Less than half of the people we surveyed in eight countries think that platforms are systematically biased towards certain views. Perceptions of bias are much stronger among certain groups, with those on the right in the US (69%) and on the left in Argentina (71%) much more likely to think social media is biased. · Learn more

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