Artificial Intelligence and Transformations in the Journalism Profession: From the Illusion of Replacement to the Reality of Integration

Abstract

This study aims to examine the structural and professional transformations affecting the journalistic field in the context of the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence technologies within newsrooms. It focuses on the professional, epistemological, and ethical concerns accompanying these changes, particularly journalists’ perceptions of the erosion of traditional roles, job insecurity, and the implications of algorithmic practices for core journalistic values such as objectivity, balance, and pluralism.

The study concludes that the integration of artificial intelligence reproduces a form of “historical panic” historically associated with major technological shifts in the media, without necessarily signaling the end of professional journalism. It also highlights algorithmic bias and the digital divide between media organizations as key challenges that may reinforce inequality and exclusion. However, the findings emphasize that the future of journalism is best understood through a logic of complementarity rather than replacement, whereby intelligent systems handle technical and data-processing tasks, while journalists retain responsibility for critical analysis, ethical judgment, and meaning-making, reaffirming the primacy of human intelligence in guiding technological use