Incursion of Artificial Intelligence into News Production: Will AI Revive Journalism?

This study examines the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into news production processes and analyzes its implications for journalism within independent digital news media in Türkiye. The research is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 participants, including 24 journalists and 5 experts. From a political economy perspective, the findings reveal that precarity and loss of professional control are the most significant concerns among journalists. Nevertheless, participants perceive AI technologies not only as a threat but also as an opportunity to liberate journalism from its profit-oriented structure. In particular, automation of routine news, visual content, and voiceovers is considered a way to enable journalists to focus on more qualitative, long-form, and investigative reporting. However, the study shows that the controlling power of AI in news distribution and content filtering is largely overlooked, which constitutes a blind spot in Türkiye’s media ecosystem. Limited financial and technical resources further restrict AI integration to basic functions. The study concludes that unless economic and ethical issues are addressed, AI will inevitably be instrumentalized for the needs of the capitalist market. Ensuring human oversight, adherence to ethical principles, and structural policies that support independent media organizations emerge as crucial conditions for safeguarding the future of journalism.