Artificial Intelligence and News: Opportunities, Trends and Challenges — A Systematic Literature Review

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.47(2025).6187

Keywords:

artificial intelligence, news, journalism, systematic literature review

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a central topic across numerous fields and is increasingly embedded in both the personal and professional dimensions of contemporary life. In the realm of journalism and news production, AI is gaining prominence, presenting not only innovative opportunities but also significant challenges and ethical concerns. Its integration into journalistic workflows and news consumption processes raises complex questions related to automation, bias, transparency, accountability, and the future of creative labor in the media industry.
This study conducts a systematic review of the academic literature on the intersection of AI and news, focusing on publications from January 2020 to September 2024. The research was guided by the PRISMA methodology and involved a rigorous selection process of academic sources indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, resulting in a final corpus of 43 relevant articles and book chapters. The review maps the main sub-themes under investigation — such as the use of AI in content creation, algorithmic gatekeeping, audience engagement, and regulatory implications.
Through a narrative analysis, this article synthesizes the key findings of existing studies and highlights emerging trends and research gaps. It offers critical reflections on the implications of AI for journalistic practice and democratic communication and suggests directions for future scholarly inquiry and regulatory development.

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Author Biographies

Catarina Feio, Departamento de Comunicação e Arte, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

Catarina Feio is a PhD student in the New Media doctoral program at the University of Aveiro (2022–present) while studying for a master’s degree in Political Science (2022–present). She has a master’s degree in Multimedia Communication (2020–2022) and a degree in New Communication Technologies (2017–2020) from the same institution. Her areas of interest are media consumption, news consumption, loneliness, political participation, and online political discourse. Her target population is the young generation living in Portugal.

Lídia Oliveira, Departamento de Comunicação e Arte, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

Lídia Oliveira is an associate professor with habilitation in the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro — Portugal. She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences and Technologies (2002) and was awarded by Young Social Scientists/Portugal (2003), the Carolina Foundation/Spain Scholarship (2020), and the PREI UNAM Mexico Scholarship (2023). She is a researcher at DigiMedia, coordinator of the Digital Media & Society WG, and director of the Digital Media Observatory (https://digimedia.web.ua.pt). Coordinator of the Cyberculture Working Group, she is the editor of the Journal of Digital Media & Interaction (https://proa.ua.pt/index.php/jdmi), as well as the editor of the DigiMedia Collection (https://digimedia.pt/digimedia-collection/). Her research interests include communication and new media, cognitive, social, and emotional implications of digital communication, temporality, and artificial intelligence.

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Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Feio, C., & Oliveira, L. (2025). Artificial Intelligence and News: Opportunities, Trends and Challenges — A Systematic Literature Review. Comunicação E Sociedade, 47, e025012. https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.47(2025).6187