Aussie journalists struggling in ‘AI-mediated news environment’

New research shows how AI news summaries favour US and European news for Australian users, with such preferencing significantly impacting local journalists and newsrooms.

Artificial intelligence is directing how we consume digital content, and when it comes to news, it is pointing us towards and away from certain sources. A new study by Dr Timothy Koskie from the Centre of AI, Trust and Governance at the University of Sydney examined 434 AI-generated news summaries by Microsoft’s Copilot and what the algorithms direct the user to.

A systematic favouritism for international outlets over Australian sources was found.

Posing as an Australian user and using seven Copilot-recommended prompts, Koskie found that most of the sources were US or European. Only one-fifth of responses to questions such as “what are the major health or medical news updates for this week” featured Australian media.

The study found a clear pattern in the voices that were promoted and those that were not. Over half of the most referenced websites were American, and in three of the seven prompts studied, no Australian sources were featured.

As a result, local journalists are being silenced and sidelined, and it’s affecting job retention. Less traction comes less viewership, less journalists in demand, and less hiring.

“This means a decline in website traffic, undermining opportunities for revenue and audience engagement for Australian outlets in an already fraught media environment,” Koskie said.

What’s more, the AI-generated news summaries often neglect to acknowledge the people or places behind the news, erasing the very sources behind it. “Journalists are almost never named, instead homogenised as ‘researchers’ or ‘experts’,” Koskie said.

“The Australian media landscape is already struggling with concentrated ownership, declining independent outlets and news deserts in regional areas.”

Koskie warned that this is exacerbating existing inequalities and power balances. “AI platforms are behaving like global news aggregators, that inherit the structural biases of the internet and then intensify them,” he said.

And widely speaking, the nature of AI to recycle and repackage content is especially damaging to the future of the journalism industry, particularly in content diversity and media sustainability – the very things threatened by AI.

Highlighting the potential erosion of Australia’s democratic foundations and public discourse, Koskie urged governments to “work with AI companies to ensure their citizens remain informed on local affairs and voices”.

He called both the automatic installation of Copilot on Windows systems as part of a phased rollout and recommending featuring its own news content on MSN “a pretty clear abuse of power”.

The research highlights, as is the pattern for AI governance, a gap in policy. Koskie questioned whether Australia’s News Media Bargaining Incentive, which focuses on the sustainability of Australian journalism, was equipped to deal with “an AI-mediated news environment.”

And while the relevancy of website recommended or potential for misinformation wasn’t the focus of the study, the consumer experience is clearly connected. The curated nature of Copilot prompts, Koskie found, shaped what users considered newsworthy, with the first articles often shaping opinion. “Australia’s regions and local communities are rarely mentioned, so local context is lost,” he added.

“If Australian links do happen to appear, readers have already consumed the news and are unlikely to click through to the original source.”

As dire as the findings are, they also point towards solutions.

“Extending the News Media Bargaining Incentive remit to consider AI tools” and “incentivising AI companies to embed geographical location” to support local sources are just two of his suggestions.

Overall, Koskie urges intervention and regulation, warning that “Australia faces disappearing local news, fewer independent voices and a weakened democracy”.