“The morass is just getting ... deeper and deeper and deeper”: Synthetic media and news integrity

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Cover of Volume: SCM Studies in Communication and Media Volume 14 (2025), Edition 4
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SCM Studies in Communication and Media

Volume 14 (2025), Edition 4

Authors:
Publisher
Nomos, Baden-Baden
Copyright year
2026
ISSN-Online
2192-4007
ISSN-Print
2192-4007

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Open Access Full access

Volume 14 (2025), Edition 4

“The morass is just getting ... deeper and deeper and deeper”: Synthetic media and news integrity

Authors:
ISSN-Print
2192-4007
ISSN-Online
2192-4007
Preview:

With the arrival of generative AI (genAI) in 2022, waves of hype and handwringing struck the news industry. These initial responses have proved overblown, if not without foundation. The challenges and opportunities of synthetic media for news are real, if more humdrum than the hype would suggest. In this paper, we draw from a two-phase qualitative study to explore how these challenges and opportunities have manifested in Australian newsrooms. We focus on: 1) How are newsrooms implementing genAI in the production of synthetic media? 2) How do newsrooms perceive the potential impacts of synthetic media on news integrity? 3) How are perceived impacts on news integrity mediating the implementation of genAI, particularly for synthetic media? Industry surveys have shown that uptake of genAI in Australian newsrooms is low relative to comparable markets. In phase 1, we found almost no use of genAI to produce synthetic media for publication. This reflected apprehension over the limitations of genAI and acute consciousness of threats to trust and news integrity. Phase 2 found some moderation of concern as low-risk opportunities had emerged, though applications in audience-facing content were still limited. Participants continued to express strong concerns about news integrity and audience trust. We apply both a technological process lens and a normative lens focused on the concept of news integrity to interpret participant insights. We conclude that the limited uptake of gen­AI in Australian newsrooms is driven by concerns about news integrity in a broad sense, going beyond journalistic standards to encompass the sociopolitical functions of journalism as well as concerns about continued platformisation of the media economy and an increasingly degraded information environment.

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