“World Press Freedom Day 2025 will focus on how Artificial Intelligence has affected and affects press freedom”
First, let’s define the terms as we try to address the future of journalism in the digital age, also known as the information age, which is generally considered to have begun in the 1970s with the introduction of the personal computer.
The period was marked by the development of technologies that enabled the rapid transfer and storage of information, with major milestones that include the development of the internet and the proliferation of personal computers, which led to a significant shift in how information was created, consumed, and shared.
On Saturday, May 3, World Press Freedom Day 2025 will focus on how Artificial Intelligence has affected and affects press freedom, the free flow of information, media independence, and the global goal of ensuring access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms.
May 3 acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom, a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.
Similarly important, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom, a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in chasing a story.
Today we see, in the newsroom – print, news agency and broadcast – what we have often described as the laboratory of human character, traditional and digital journalists.
They differ primarily in their approach to gathering, editing, and delivering news, with digital journalists often using multimedia storytelling, data analysis, and audience interaction.
Traditional journalists often focus on ethical storytelling and in-depth analysis delivered via print and broadcast media (radio and television mainly).
In the digital age, journalists are the individuals who gather, create, and disseminate news and information through digital channels like websites, social media, podcasts, and videos.
They are essentially the same as traditional journalists, adhering to principles of unbiased reporting and ethics, but they also need to be proficient in multimedia, marketing, and adapting to a rapidly changing digital landscape.
Given that, are there challenges traditional and non-traditional journalists face in the digital age?
Given the available space, let’s identify some of the challenges, which include the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation, the pressure to produce content at the seed of thunderclap, ethical considerations related to social media and adapting to changing technologies and revenue models.
From experience, we know the internet and social media have made it easier for fake news and misinformation to spread rapidly and widely, in which case journalists need to be vigilant in verifying information and combating the spread of false narratives, particularly in the age of AI-generated content, which can be very convincing but still untrue.
Newsroom veterans say the digital age demands speed and immediacy, but journalists also have a responsibility to ensure accuracy and factual accuracy and there lies the need to balance the pressure to report fast with the obligation to verify information.
There are the social media platforms which can be powerful tools but they also raise ethical concerns about privacy, sourcing, and objectivity.
Seasoned journalists, and may their tribe increase, argue journalists must be mindful of the potential for bias and sensationalism on social media.
These same newsroom observers, who know well the difference between gatekeepers and those covering the beat, say journalism is constantly evolving as new technologies emerge; therefore, journalists must be able to adapt to new platforms and formats, as well as learn new skills like data journalism and social media management.
We note that revenue models for journalism, like paid advertising and subscriptions. have been disrupted by the digital age, which points to the urgency of online subscriptions, donations and other .
Journalists must find new ways to generate revenue, like through online subscriptions, donations, and other ingenious game plans.
Uniformly important is the ability to sustain public trust and credibility, eroded by the rise of misinformation and disinformation, and an insightful manner to stand up to the threats from cyberattacks and date breaches.
