aceThey Think AI Can Do More Than It Actually Can: Practices, Challenges, & Opportunities of AI-Supported Reporting In Local Journalism
Declining newspaper revenues prompt local newsrooms to adopt automation to maintain efficiency and keep the community informed. However, current research provides a limited understanding of how local journalists work with digital data and which newsroom processes would benefit most from AI-supported (data) reporting. To bridge this gap, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with local journalists in Germany. Our study investigates how local journalists use data and AI (RQ1); the challenges they encounter wh…
Local journalists in Germany reported willingness to use AI-supported tools to process data and discover stories to help maintain efficiency.
Local journalists in Germany do not fully leverage AI to support data-related reporting work, linked to limited awareness of what AI can do.
Findings are bounded by a small qualitative sample of 21 local journalists in Germany and by limited existing research on local data practices, which constrains generalizability.
Evidence
- Peer-reviewedProceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems2026-04-13
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-0156, v1: “They Think AI Can Do More Than It Actually Can: Practices, Challenges, & Opportunities of AI-Supported Reporting In Local Journalism.” Truvace, 2026-07-13. /record/TRV-2026-0156 (accessed at citation time). sha256 a5b2621a7a34e14d…
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