The Next Chapter: Journalism in the age of AI

DW Akademie brought together participants from more than 30 countries for a global workshop series exploring the future of journalism in the age of AI. Held in Thailand, Mexico, and Jordan in November and December 2025, the sessions convened voices from across the media and tech ecosystem, alongside representatives from civil society, policy, and academia.

Asia: Fair play, fair pay—who pays for the news in the age of Big Tech and AI?

Journalists, media entrepreneurs, technologists, and civil society actors from across Asia gathered in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on November 25th, for a DW Akademie workshop held ahead of the Splice Beta conference.

The event tackled a pressing question for the digital era: Who pays for the journalism that increasingly fuels AI systems? And: Can public-interest media survive as platforms and tech companies capture large chunks of the value? Participants described a media landscape marked by fragile business models, declining trust, aggressive AI content scraping, and widening power imbalances between newsrooms and big digital tech companies.

Discussions mapped out a stark set of threats to media viability. These include economic extraction through AI scraping, job losses driven by automation, rising costs of adopting new technologies, and the erosion of the public information space as audiences turn to AI summaries over original reporting.

Participants also warned that AI is amplifying disinformation, deepening digital exclusion, and enabling censorship under the guise of regulation. At the same time, the workshop highlighted opportunities: Collective bargaining to negotiate fair compensation, shared infrastructure, strategic use of AI to improve efficiency and investigative capacity, and audience-centric innovation that rebuilds trust and strengthens community ties.

Lightning talks underscored the need for a cultural and strategic shift. Speakers called on newsrooms to stop waiting for platforms to rescue them, to focus on reader revenue and niche strategies, and to compete "in the newsroom, not in code". As one participant put it, if quality journalism disappears, there will be nothing left for AI to learn from. 

The workshop concluded with clear calls to action: journalists must embrace business and product thinking while using AI on their own terms, participants said, while media development actors should prioritize shared infrastructure and revenue-generating support over one-off projects. Donors, for their part, should fund long-term experimentation and locally driven solutions, it was said.

Towards inclusive AI: Shaping coalitions for independent media in the MENA region

"Guarding Arab screens from silent shutdowns, defending voices, dismantling silences, hacking dictatorship narratives, and demanding algorithmic accountability worldwide:" This is how an AI chatbot described the group gathered in Amman based on the participants' names and publicly availabale information.

Twenty AI and journalism experts from from universities, think tanks, start ups and independent media outlets across the MENA region had followed DW Akademie's invitation to gather at the Jordan Media Insitute in the Jordanian capital on December 4th to discuss the future of journalism in the AI age.

Five hours of intense discussion crystallized into five key recommendations for how journalism in the Middle East can master the challenges and seize the opportunities of AI:

Journalism mustshift from defense to offense. Journalists should proactively study AI's success factors—speed, relevance, and solution-orientation—and adopt the technology where appropriate. Journalists should further act as a watchdog for AI: By explaining how AI systems work, how they reshape power relations and what this all means for society and policymakers alike.

A regional, non-legislative, Middle Eastern owned framework for AI governance is needed. At its core there would be an Arab AI Council coordinating standards, research and ethical frameworks across borders. Its work would aim at ensuring that AI development aligns with local values and societal priorities instead of imported models. 

Digital sovereignity is essential. Building and supporting homegrown technological solutions by strengthening regional innovation ecosystems should be a priority. In this way, dependency on external platforms can be avoided.

Inclusive and representative AI must be embraced: By ensuring access to AI tools for everyone—by removing financial, technological or educational barriers. The users' privacy has to be protected and over-regulation has to be avoided. Ai must also better serve the different  Arabic dialects. It has to be ensured that AI doesn't reflect state-driven narratives but serves society as a whole.

Cross-sector coalitions are of utmost importance. The AI transition cannot be managed by journalism alone. Sustainable solutions require strong alliances between media, tech, academia, civil society, and policymakers. Journalists, data scientists, and computer scientists must co-develop tools, standards, and safeguards.

Redefining the rules of the game in Latin America: Independent journalism in the age of AI

On November 28th, twenty journalists, researchers, tech experts, policymakers, and civil society representatives from Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay met in Mexico City. As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms journalism, they set out to finding alternatives to services provided by big digital technology companies.

Power imbalance and its consequences: AI-driven platforms from Silicon Valley are now the region's information gatekeepers, hurting local outlets' audiences and revenues, participants said. "We are in a scenario of profound power asymmetry, and we don't have the conditions or negotiating power to face the platforms alone," said Maia Gonçalves Fortes of Ajor from Brazil. Researcher Paola Ricaurte stressed that "hegemonic AI, controlled by five companies and particularly by the US, is a political, imperial, and colonial project deliberately designed to deepen dependence". 

Perspectives and voices: The workshop brought together a rich mix of participants, each contributing distinct perspectives and expertise. Some, like Elena Wesley from Brazil's Data_Labe, are pioneers in audience engagement. They combine data journalism with workshops that help communities understand and respond to AI.

Others, such as the team behind Chile’s LatamGPT project, focus on innovation by building an open, regional language model with trusted partners to keep AI development and value within Latin America. Developer Eugenio Herrera-Berg described this as "a new type of super-collective development".

The workshop also aimed at impacting political decision-making: Nina Santos, Brazil's Deputy Secretary of Digital Policy, and Alonso Tamez, Technical Secretary of the Senate AI Commission in Mexico, contributed firsthand knowledge from the frontlines of AI regulation and public policy.

They listened to participants' perspectives and engaged in open discussion, ensuring that voices from across the information ecosystem were heard in shaping future policy directions.

Academic voices and digital rights advocates added critical perspectives, highlighting risks and clarifying boundaries on issues like data sovereignty and ethical AI use.

Conversations laid the groundwork for stronger regional alliances, grassroots engagement and advocacy.

Next steps for journalism: In the face of persistent digital divides and increasing influence from foreign tech companies, Latin America needs to take control of its own information future, participants said. They emphasized that journalism's sustainability and democratic value depend on reclaiming agency, fostering regional innovation, building alliances across sectors, and putting audiences at the centre.

Strengthening media and information literacy was seen as crucial for citizens to understand journalism's public service role and to recognize how AI affects their lives: e.g. by consuming resources, shaping what information they see, and serving specific interests.

Rather than giving in to the pressure of collaborating with big digital technology companies and handing over valuable information and archives, the path forward for Latin America was seen in cross-sector collaboration within the region, local leadership, and the empowerment of both journalists and citizens to critically engage with AI's growing influence.

According to the experts, this entails developing independent solutions, protecting local data and perspectives, and ensuring that technology truly serves the public interest rather than external or commercial priorities.

Bettina Knuth, Lucie Gürtler and Attila Mong