☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Top story: Were authors – and articles – on Sports Illustrated’s website generated by AI?
- New from Pew Research Center: Key audience and economic trends in the U.S. news media
- In other news: Rupert Murdoch was scheduled to be deposed earlier this week in Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit
- Looking ahead: Internal dispute at ProPublica over collaboration with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette during the paper’s strike
- Chart of the week: Circulation of daily newspapers in the U.S. continues to decline
🔥 Top story
Sports Illustrated published articles attributed to fake authors with headshots generated by artificial intelligence, according to a report by Futurism, raising questions about whether the articles themselves were written by AI. Sports Illustrated has since removed the articles and author pages.
Using AI to create content does not seem to be a widespread practice in newsrooms at this stage. Just 8% of U.S. journalists said in a 2022 Pew Research Center survey that their news organization relies on content generated by computer programs using AI at least a little, including only 1% who said this happens a lot.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
This week, we released a roundup of key audience and economic trends from our State of the News Media project. Audiences are shrinking for several traditional types of news media – such as local TV stations, most newspapers and public radio – even as they grow for newer platforms like podcasts, as well as for a few specific media brands. Economically, the newspaper industry and network television saw losses in advertising revenue, while local TV revenue followed typical patterns associated with election years.
Read more about the key trends in the state of the U.S. news media.
📌 In other news
- Rupert Murdoch was scheduled to be deposed earlier this week as part of voting technology company Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp
- Kashmir journalist released from prison after two years
- Jezebel set to return after being acquired by Paste Magazine, less than a month after shuttering
- A Moscow court ruled that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention will be extended
- Legal complaint filed by states alleges that Meta routinely collected children’s personal information
- A look at “ghost newsrooms” and efforts by startups to fill the local news void
📅 Looking ahead
ProPublica’s collaboration with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is sparking internal conflict amid an ongoing strike by Post-Gazette staff. Union members at ProPublica fear the organization’s support undermines the strike’s effectiveness. The dispute raises broader questions about news organizations’ commitment to ethics and labor solidarity in an evolving media landscape.
According to a 2022 Center survey, 16% of U.S. journalists who are employed at least part time say they are currently a member of a union at their news organization, and another 41% say they would join one if it were available to them.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart of the week comes from our recent roundup of the State of the News Media roundup, showing the general decline in daily newspaper circulation in the United States. As of 2022, weekday circulation is down 8% from the previous year and 32% from five years prior, when it was over 30 million.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by Anna Jackson.
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