Newsnet #5. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Social Communication

Abstract

The expansion of generative artificial intelligence has transformed the way information is produced and circulated, raising pressing questions about its impact on truthfulness, authorship, and informational responsibility. In this new landscape, disinformation is taking on increasingly sophisticated and harder-to-detect forms, making its study an urgent task in understanding the balance between technology, power, and public knowledge. In this context, the Newsnet #5 seminar took place at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) on December 13, 2024 and sought to find answers to understand the impact that the incorporation of artificial intelligence will have in the media, particularly in aspects such as misinformation or the impact on journalists and their audiences. This volume is structured in two main sections that are in dialogue with one another. The first examines how artificial intelligence is becoming embedded at the core of communication and journalism, reshaping the ways in which information is produced, distributed and received. The second section broadens the focus to other forms of digital communication. It brings together research that investigates how social media and new expressive formats are redefining the relationships between media and their audiences. These contributions allow for the situating of artificial intelligence within a wider ecosystem, where technology, culture and everyday life intersect.