Generative AI and Journalism

T. J. Thomson is an Associate Professor at RMIT University, Australia where he co-leads the News, Technology, and Society Network. He is an expert in visual communication and is the co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism (2025) and is the co-author of Living with Misinformation A Media Literacy Approach (Routledge, 2026) and Everyday Visual News: Audience Expectations, Engagements, and Meanings (Routledge, 2026).Ryan J. Thomas is a Professor of Journalism and Media Production and Director of Graduate Studies in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, USA. His teaching and research centre on issues pertaining to the intersections of journalism and democracy, journalism ethics, and the sociology of news production. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Media Ethics and co-editor (with Edson C. Tandoc, Joy Jenkins, and Oscar Westlund) of Critical Incidents in Journalism: Pivotal Moments Reshaping Journalism Around the World (Routledge, 2020).Hannes Cools is Assistant Professor ‘Human Factor in New Technologies’ at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is also a Fellow at the Digital Democracy Centre (DDC), at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). His research interests include responsible AI, computational journalism, newsroom innovation and news automation. He is also a research affiliate at the Culture, Communication and Technology (CCT) Program of Georgetown University in Washington DC, USA.

“Thomson, Thomas, and Cools provide a provocative, insightful, and critical examination of the implications of generative artificial intelligence for journalism. Generative AI and Journalism delivers much-needed guidance on this topic. With its historical-analytical approach, the book is a must-read for any serious scholar, student, or practitioner of journalism.”Distinguished Professor John V. Pavlik, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University"This insightful book brings together historical perspectives on technological change, analysis of journalism’s social and professional contexts, critical evaluation of AI-generated outputs, and attention to audience experiences to provide a rich account of genAI’s implications for journalism. Nuanced and balanced in its examination of a complex and contested transformation, it offers an important contribution to understanding how journalism is adapting to genAI."Professor Antonis Kalogeropoulos, Free University of Brussels“The powerful current of AI hype, breakthroughs and politics is relentless. This book is the pause that helps media professionals, policy makers and academics find their footing: a welcome deep dive into understanding what is actually driving the wave, and what it means for the future of the field.”Distinguished University Professor Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam

• Acknowledgements, Preface, Chapter 1: Historicising Generative AI’s Rise in Journalism, Chapter 2: Social and Institutional Drivers of Generative AI in Journalism, Chapter 3: Generative AI in the Newsroom: Organisations, Routines, and People, Chapter 4: Evaluating Generative AI Content in Journalism From Two Perspectives, Chapter 5: Learning From Audiences About Generative AI in Journalism, Chapter 6: Theoretical Takeaways and Future Forecasts for the Journalistic and Scholarly Fields, Index