The article explores how generative AI continues to affect the journalism landscape, despite past technological disruptions. Newsroom experiments with AI have raised existential questions about journalism's value while prompting unionization among journalists. The authors, experienced in communication and technology law, analyze nearly 50 union sources from 2022 to 2024 to shed light on news unions’ efforts to navigate and stabilize the integration of AI within the industry. This ongoing struggle highlights the interplay between technological change and labor power in journalism.
In many ways, this is familiar territory for journalism. In a long line of digital technologies, generative AI is yet another sociotechnical force that journalists did not create or ask for.
Our work is based on a close study of nearly 50 union sources over a two-year period from 2022 to 2024, offering insights into how news media unions navigate generative AI.
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