AI literacy in Swiss journalism – How to strengthen the digital resilience of journalism and audiences

How is AI used in Swiss journalism? How does this affect the quality of news reporting? And how is the use of AI communicated to the public? 

For the first time, the project provides a comprehensive overview of the use of AI in Swiss journalism, based on a nationwide survey of 730 media professionals. It reveals that, for the majority of journalists, AI is already part of their daily work and is used primarily as a support tool. Improvements in efficiency and quality are only evident to a limited extent. Some media professionals report improvements and say they have more time for research and analysis. The majority, however, perceive little change. In some cases, there is a lack of time to carefully check AI-generated content or to supplement it with their own sources. Many media professionals also have (almost) no time to engage with how AI tools work, or with data and source protection. In some media organisations, media professionals’ AI skills are scarcely promoted. In many newsrooms, there are no established quality assurance measures in place for the use of AI. The Swiss Press Council’s AI guidelines have so far failed to gain widespread acceptance. At the same time, there is broad consensus among media professionals that the use of AI raises many ethical questions and that uniform standards are needed within the media industry – particularly for AI labelling, so that its significance is clear to the public.

There is currently a tension here: media professionals assume that the public expects transparency and rigorous scrutiny, yet they consider the public’s AI literacy and awareness of editorial AI guidelines and labelling to be very low. Recommendations for action can be derived from the study, aimed at establishing common standards, embedding quality assurance more firmly, and communicating the use of AI more comprehensively to the public.