Epilogue
Trust matters as journalism fights for its online future
In recent years the talk in news media has been all about new players in journalism and the impact of artificial intelligence in the newsroom.
Two recent reports indicate trends in the news industry that will have an impact on the future of journalism and very little of it appears to be good news.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report for 2026, for example, points to the impact of political, economic, and technological turbulence on journalism across the globe. This report says people are increasingly using artificial intelligence to get their news and information. As the world changes, news media report compete for a share of the four to five hours each day that people devote to their smartphones. This provides new opportunities, but also has risks.
There is also increasing concern about the lack of trust in news, the spread of disinformation and the wider influence of technology platforms on our lives. For the first time social media and video networks are more popular than both TV and traditional news websites. People online like to watch rather than read the news. They are turning to a new range of sources and voices online that are credible and innovative. Mainstream news organisations have on average seen video consumption on their own sites and apps falling as a result.
In particular, television news is in decline, as viewers turn to TikTok and Instagram which are the fastest growing video-led networks together with YouTube. Facebook remains the biggest platform overall for news consumption. Mainstream news organisations have on average seen video consumption on their own sites and apps falling as a result. Most worryingly, trust in news has fallen in a majority of market resulting in a drop overall to the lowest level the Reuters researchers have seen in more than ten years. Some of this worldwide drop in trust reflects wider anxieties beyond the news industry – trust in institutions and leaders is widely declining, and journalism is also often under direct attack
from high-profile politicians.
Nevertheless, despite fragmenting and polarised opinions there is still hope says the report. People still seem to care about the quality of news and journalism. Trust in the most widely used individual news brands is holding up better than trust in news overall. A second report comes from the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, which in June 2026 published the Media Pluralism Monitor 2026, a comprehensive assessment of
risks to media pluralism and press freedom in the European Union. Again the story is bad news. The report highlights weak business models, a lack of
protection against legal intimidation practices, and market concentration, all of which are challenging the resilience of media pluralism in Europe.
It also reveals that the working conditions of journalists, in terms of salaries and social security schemes, are deteriorating in a third of European countries. And all of this despite the entry into force of the European Media Freedom Act, a ground-breaking piece of legislation designed to reinforce and strengthen journalism in Europe. The indicator relating to journalists’ working conditions shows that “the number of employed journalists continues to decline – albeit at a slower pace than before – working conditions of freelancers remain poor, and the business models of news media are increasingly vulnerable to the digital transformation.”
The President of the European Federation of Journalists Maja Sever accused the European Union, national governments, and the media industry of not taking the necessary measures to protect media workers. She said: “It is time to take seriously the dangerous deterioration in our working conditions and the threat this poses to democracy”.
And it’s not just wages and conditions that are defining the hazardous news environment; the growth of unregulated use of artificial intelligence in journalism continues to worry people in news media. News organisations aim to save money by using AI to gather, edit and publish information at
the expense of jobs for journalists. The latest reports show that more than a quarter of consumers globally get some news from
news-focused individual creators or influencers, and almost half get some news from creators of any type.
It appears that the reading public increasingly thinks that creators are more entertaining, easier to understand, and more relatable than traditional news outlets, but they also think creators are less trustworthy. Most people who get news from creators use them alongside traditional media – not instead of it. In response to all of this, the Ethical Journalism Network, which is a supporter of the FJA, is calling for more action to promote ethical news making at all levels of media as a way of rebuilding public trust in journalism.
In particular, the EJN says priority should be given to the recruitment and professionalization of new players in journalism. As so-called influencer journalists, streamers and online content providers take their place in the information landscape the question arises – who is a journalist and how can these new suppliers of information be trusted? Most of these writers regard their work as a form of journalism, but they don’t regard themselves as journalists in a traditional sense. Journalists usually define themselves through their education (journalism school) or their employment (a news media company) or their membership of a professional group (trade union or association with access to a press card).
However, the new online community of streamers and influencers is made up of people with their own brand of personal and commercially-driven information with no attachment to professional networks. Many journalists’ associations and unions are finding the best answer is to recruit them into membership and make them accountable to the codes of conducts and ethical standards that traditional journalists respect. This approach is being pioneered in European unions of journalists, particularly in the Netherlands and Denmark and was the subject of a resolution adopted by the European Federation of Journalists at its annual meeting in Ankara in June 2026. At the same time the EJN argues for the rigorous applications of ethical standards in the use of artificial intelligence. They promote the use of hybrid systems – artificial intelligence monitored and guided by the social intelligence of human beings – as a key to defending standards and moral values in journalism.
The message is clear: the coming years will see further dramatic changes, but attachment to the core values of journalism – fact-based news, impartiality, editorial independence, humanity in reporting and transparency across the news landscape – can ensure that journalism will preserve its social role as a cornerstone of democracy.