With the rapid rise of AI generated content, online misinformation and disinformation, the value of credible news increases.
Misleading digital campaigns create deception and consequently result in erosion of trust on media and democratic institutions. If we want to safeguard and strengthen democratic conversation, we need to reinforce the role of quality journalism by supporting media resilience.
Long gone are the days when everyone was informed about all the latest news from tv shows, print newspapers or even news websites. For the past decades we have seen a major transition in the media landscape with the emergence of social media platforms and AI tools playing a vital role in informing the public.
Traditional media are considered now too slow or institutional for the social media and algorithmic age. However, with the explosion of AI-generated content, online misinformation, disinformation campaigns and digital deceit, is traditional media the last line of defence for a healthy democratic conversation?
One could say that we are now navigating a decisive era when it comes to media and communications systems. Being working for the past years as a communications professional at the heart of the EU decision making, monitoring the shifts in audience’s trust in the media but also in the institutions, I would argue that the value of traditional media, given the current challenges in the information sphere, is not only increasing but is becoming more and more vital for all democratic societies.
A fractured information landscape
Quality journalism should not be treated as a commercial product but more as a 'democratic infrastructure'.
The latest Reuters Institute’s report which focuses on analysing journalism, media, and technology trends for 2026, presents a stark picture for the current media landscape. This is not an exaggerated argument; the data speak for themselves!
The report highlights that younger audiences tend to increasingly consume information through creators and algorithmically customised feeds while only slightly more than a third (38%) of their sample of editors, CEOs, and digital executives seem to be confident about the prospects for journalism in the year of 2026. According to Reuters Institute’s analysis, publishers also expect a decline in referral traffic with AI tools summarising reporting without directing the audience necessarily to the original reporting by journalists.
The report also indicates that we are going to see a declining engagement in traditional media which may lead many decision makers and politicians to bypassing traditional media outlets and giving gradually more interviews to creators on social media platforms.
The real threat is not only online misinformation or deceiving digital campaigns. Misleading information or propaganda has always been a threat to democracy. However, nowadays, citizens tend to shape their opinions from systems optimised for engagement, inhabiting in echo chambers that fuel polarisation. The emerging challenges in the way audiences consume information is alarming and we should not turn a blind eye.
Verification in the age of algorithms
The role of traditional media as a gatekeeper has always been essential for a healthy democratic conversation since they possess systems of verification, editorial impartiality, accountability and professional standards that viral accounts from social media creators or AI generated content do not. At the same time, AI-generated results often present inaccuracies to news-related questions or sourcing issues. Therefore, even though these tools rely on professional journalism, they should not be used as a replacement.
On the other hand, traditional journalism will not be able to defend democracy without evolving in an ever-changing media landscape. I am not trying to romanticise the past; there is an ongoing urgency for media outlets to adapt quickly to the latest changes in the preferences of the audiences, younger demographics, visual and mobile-first formats.
This transformation though should not focus only on virality. The civic value of legacy media is too important to lose, and democracies need quality journalism that is relying more on context and verification rather than immediacy.
Of course, this is also a challenge for policymakers and media leaders who need to preserve traditional media as businesses while making sure to safeguard the conditions when it comes to informing the public and ensuring a healthy democratic dialogue. This means that investing in media literacy and strengthening quality journalism is necessary if we want to tackle the emerging dangers that are posed by algorithmic reinforcement and synthetic realities.
Democracies require trusted mediators that is why public-service broadcasters, credible newspapers and newsrooms remain among the few actors who are capable of creating a civic arena where different views can engage with a shared factual baseline ensuring at the same time verification, accountability and public-interest reporting.
In the age of algorithms, virality, online disinformation and AI-generated content, the value of traditional media and quality journalism is no longer nostalgic.
