A new report looking at consumer use of artificial intelligence to access news has found mixed results.
This year’s Digital News Report shows Australian news consumers are generationally and politically split in their reactions to global occurrences and how they learn about them.
Australian news organisations continue to trial new technologies and negotiate with big-tech companies to diversify their revenue streams.
This year’s report started tracking audience use of AI chatbots to access news and how they feel about the way AI is being used in news production; as people get more familiar and comfortable with AI-produced news, they are beginning to use it more.
However, they are also sceptical about its veracity and transparency, raising concerns that increased use of AI in the production of news might further diminish people’s trust in it.
Key findings
- Facebook (59%) and TikTok (57%) are seen as a major misinformation threat among social platforms.
- Consumers see AI-produced news as cheaper and more up to date but less trustworthy than human-produced news.
- 29% are interested in personalised AI news summaries.
- Social media is a popular place for 18–24 year olds to watch news videos, with more than one-third watching them on TikTok (37%) and Instagram (34%).
- People with news literacy education have higher trust in news (53%) than those without (41%)
Not just Australia, this report delivers comparative data on media usage in 48 markets and across 6 continents. The report comes at a time of political and economic turbulence in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s re-election and the early actions of his administration.
In Australia, the divisive chaos of the White House led to the rejection of right-wing populism and reconfirmation of the centrist nature of Australian politics. While the result delivered electoral stability, the campaign highlighted how fragmented the media environment has become, and that people are increasingly turning to non-mainstream news sources such as podcasts, influencers and digital-first publishers to be informed.
Finding the right balance between new technologies being useful as well as ethical and trustworthy is a critical consideration for news organisations. The 2025 data confirms that transparency, factual reporting and journalism quality are the main drivers of trust in news.
Whatever technology is used, it is important for news organisations to explain to their audiences how these generative AI technologies are being employed and for what purpose.
Read the full report here: Digital news report: Australia 2025
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