New Forms, Old Values – The Renewal of Quality Journalism in the Age of AI

Lecture on 26 February 2027

The challenges facing the “fourth estate” show no sign of diminishing. Internet platforms and AI models draw on its content, populists and their supporters attack it as part of the despised establishment, and social media platforms compete with it for attention. At the same time, new media formats and a closer relationship with readers and users are creating enormous opportunities, particularly for what are known as quality media.

However, these changing conditions also create new prerequisites for success. Artificial intelligence is reducing the value of pure information and conventional data. They are becoming less attractive because AI can provide them faster and more easily than any human being. An appealing media outlet must therefore offer more than just “information”: it must become a host for communities and a place where people seek and find context, interpretation and perspective.

Sustained trust also requires the use of AI – for example, in automated summaries or synthetic reading voices – to be clearly identified. Building strong relationships is essential: media outlets need recognisable faces and voices with distinctive and compelling profiles. More anonymous and faceless publications are finding it increasingly difficult to succeed. Editorial teams must also find ways to reflect the different perspectives within society – conservative and liberal, rural and urban.

What is communicated externally must also be reflected within media organisations themselves. Rigid structures need to give way to more agile processes and innovative formats such as video podcasts and interactive community offerings across different platforms and levels of engagement.

These developments can be particularly beneficial to media committed to enlightenment, analysis and in-depth journalism. Their future is anything but bleak.