Neil Thurman

Why people choose not to share news Plus: UK journalists' skeptical adoption of AI, politicians as drivers of journalist harassment, and metrics' post-publication influence

Thanks to @sethclewis.bsky.social, @markcoddington.bsky.social, and @tamarwilner.bsky.social for including our new AI Journalism report in the latest edition of their excellent RQ1 newsletter:

rq1.substack.com/p/why-people...

Full report:

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...

Has AI in journalism relieved journalists of low-level tasks? In our new report we find more frequent AI users are more – not less – likely to believe they work on low-level tasks too frequently.

Full report:

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...

Thanks to my co-authors the @ifkw.bsky.social's @sinatk.bsky.social & the @reutersinstitute.bsky.social's @richardfletcher.bsky.social.

Our representative survey of 1000+ journalists reveals:

• Which journalists are using AI, how often & for what tasks
• How they perceive its impact on their work & journalism more broadly
• Their newsrooms' approaches to AI integration & policies

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...

AI adoption by UK journalists and their newsrooms: surveying applications, approaches, and attitudes This report is primarily focused on whether and how journalists and news organisations use artificial intelligence, and how it relates to other aspects of their work.

You'll find many more insights in the report, authored by @neilthurman.bsky.social @sinatk.bsky.social and @richardfletcher.bsky.social. Key links to explore it

📱 Full report
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...
📃 PDF version
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/defaul...

We just published a new report on how UK journalists are adopting AI in their work
Authored by @neilthurman.bsky.social @sinatk.bsky.social & @richardfletcher.bsky.social, it's based on a survey conducted in 2024

Read in full
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-...
10 findings in thread

Please consider helping my student Laura Müller by answering her English language survey on the perception of Instagram ads. The survey is anonymous & only takes around 5 minutes:

www.soscisurvey.de/bachelorarbe...

Laura is completing her BA thesis at @lmumuenchen.bsky.social's @ifkw.bsky.social.

The chapter draws on responses from over 32,000 journalists in 75 countries. The full report is available here:

www.worldsofjournalism.org/reports-wjs3/

With chapters on journalists':

Personal Backgrounds
Employment Conditions
Safety
Editorial Autonomy
Perceptions of Journalistic Roles
& more

Which distribution platforms – from print to podcasts – do journalists around the world produce for? 🗞️ 📨 📻 📺 📱 🌍

Which media formats – from audio to animation – do they produce in? 📽️ 📷 🎤 📈 ✍ 🌎

Read the new Worlds of Journalism Study Report to find out:

www.worldsofjournalism.org/wp-content/u...

Journalism Today. 17 Oct 2025

The latest edition of our roundup on journalism features stories on a German newspaper going out of print, a car bomb targeting an Italian investigative journalist, and how abandoned news sites are turned into slop farms.

Join us every weekday!

Zeitungen: „Print hat noch immer Zukunft“ Kommunikationswissenschaftler Neil Thurman über das Ende der gedruckten taz und die Stärken und Schwächen des Digitalen.

"Ein Klick hier, ein Wisch dort, und schon ist man wieder weg": Was passiert, wenn #Zeitungsverlage ihre Print-Ausgaben einstellen und ihre Lesenden nur noch online erreichen? 📰 #LMU-Professor @neilthurman.bsky.social hat das weltweit untersucht: www.lmu.de/de/newsroom/...

It is almost time for the release of the findings of Wave 3 of the Worlds of Journalism Study. Keep an eye out on our socials for more information. In the meantime, we are pleased to introduce you to all the researchers from across the globe who are involved in the study.

The academic journal Digital Journalism (DJ) identified "many" hallucinated references in a submitted article. They desk-rejected the submission & told the authors they're "no longer welcome to submit to DJ." You have been warned:

drive.google.com/file/d/1KfLL...

@digitaljournalism.bsky.social

A big shout out to all the researchers around the world who collected the data behind the soon-to-be-released Worlds of Journalism Wave 3 top-line findings. Full list of names here:

zenodo.org/records/1528...

Follow ‪@worldsofjournalism.bsky.social‬
for the forthcoming findings of the 3rd Wave of this global survey, involving surveys of 32,000 journalists in 75 countries. While you're waiting, take a look at the results of the UK-leg of the survey:

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/defaul...

Thanks to my co-authors from @ifkw.bsky.social ky.social: Sorsha Sabus and @sinatk.bsky.social. Thanks also to the @datajconf.com for the opportunity to present the paper.

openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/35...

Our new study finds journalists:
👉 with higher AI knowledge and/or
👉 who work at newsrooms where AI is more integrated

see AI in journalism as an opportunity to a significantly higher extent:

openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/35...

That said, AI is seen as more of a threat than an opportunity.

Important research from @suttontrust.bsky.social about privilege of 100 elite media editors/presenters. Our @reutersinstitute.bsky.social report looks wider—at ALL UK journalists. We found over 22% privately educated. Well above the 7% nationwide:

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/uk-journalis...

On 31 Dec, the @ajc.com will quit print & go online-only. What will happen to the audience attention it attracts? If the pattern's the same as @richardfletcher.bsky.social & I found for @the-independent.com, then none of the print reading mins will move online:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Watch this space for our forthcoming report on the survey's findings...

• Main employer's: media background, level of newsroom AI integration, use of AI for specific newsroom tasks, use of inhouse and/or 3rd-party AI tools, AI stance, plans for AI integration, provision of AI training & protocols, size, ownership, & membership of a larger media conglomerate.

• Perceptions of: the extent to which AI is a threat to journalism, the extent to which AI is an opportunity for journalism, and concern about seven possible ethical consequences of AI use in journalism.

• Working routines, specifically: beat worked on, media formats worked with (text, photographs etc.), frequency of journalistic use of AI in general, and frequency of use of AI for 31 specific journalistic tasks (e.g. translation, still image generation etc.).

• Employment: yrs work experience; employment contract; management responsibility; satisfaction with time spent on low level & complex and creative tasks; & perceptions of job security (Vander Elst et al, 2013), workplace stress (‘Workplace Stress Scale’ ), & level of editorial freedom.

The survey contains questions about journalists’:

• Personal characteristics, specifically: gender, age, openness (adapted from ‪‪@cjsotomatic.bsky.social‬‬ & John, 2017), and AI knowledge (adapted from ‪@maitesoto-sanfiel.bsky.social‬, ‪@angulobrunet.bsky.social‬ & ‪@lutzid.bsky.social‬, 2024).

We're happy to share the full questionnaire we used in our recent survey of UK journalists on artificial intelligence:

figshare.com/articles/onl...

@sinatk.bsky.social & I designed the questionnaire with the assistance of students from @lmumuenchen.bsky.social's @ifkw.bsky.social.

UK journalists face growing personal threats and say media freedom is at risk - Index on Censorship A new Reuters Institute report on the British media landscape found that nearly half of those surveyed think the truth is shaped by people in power

New @indexoncensorship.org piece on our @reutersinstitute.bsky.social UK Journalists report. Mark Stimpson highlights our findings on UK journalists' diversity; experience of safety threats; & thoughts on media freedom, objectivity, & their societal roles:

www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/06/uk-j...

Policy & Internet | PSO Journal | Wiley Online Library In 2020, the French Parliament passed an amendment that put the country at the forefront of attempts by democratic states to restrict young people's access to legal online pornography. This study exa...

Re: how much difference Pornhub's decision will make to under 18s' exposure to online porn, our research shows the same proportions of 15–17-year-olds (31%) had seen porn via other porn sites as via 8 of the most popular porn sites in France (inc Pornhub): onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Reach of—and recency of exposure to—pornography via each of eight media platforms among 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds in France (N  =  999). Note: The size of the bubbles indicates the proportion who have had any exposure. The position of the bubbles indicates the mean and median days since last exposure.

Pornhub is to suspend their site in France in protest at a new age verification law:

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

In our research, we found that 41% of 15–17-year-olds in France had seen porn via such porn sites, on average within the last month:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

How to change UK journalism: what we learnt at the launch of our report on the profession today A panel moderated by our Director, Mitali Mukherjee, discussed tech disruption, a lack of diversity and the uncertain future of young journalists.

@mitalilive.bsky.social @robynvinter.bsky.social @glendacooper.bsky.social @neilthurman.bsky.social
and Kira Richards discussed our recent #UKJournalists report @cityjournalism.bsky.social

Here's a summary of the panel by @marinaadami.bsky.social
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-cha...