Australian media academics warn professional journalism is becoming harder to distinguish from a flood of content produced by influencers, platforms and AI.
University of Sydney media professor Catharine Lumby said she was deeply concerned about the state of trusted journalism as social media algorithms pushed people towards increasingly partisan content.
"Social media uses algorithms to monetise data and attention spans and drive us down rabbit holes into rabbit warrens of opinion," she told AAP.
"It means that people are now getting biased information all the time, and it is radically polarising Western liberal democracies."
AI-generated videos and other synthetic content have intensified the problem, making disinformation easier to produce and distribute.
"Who knew that access to all the information in the world could make people dumber and angrier?" Professor Lumby said.
University of Sydney media expert Timothy Koskie said Australians were increasingly getting news from platforms they did not necessarily trust.
"People have demonstrated that they can happily get news from a source that they do not trust," he told AAP.
"The most distrusted news source ... is social media. Its popularity also goes up every year, to now be one of the most dominant sources of news."
At the same time, audiences are increasingly questioning journalists' traditional role as impartial and accurate arbiters of information.
Dr Koskie said social media personalities could build unusually strong relationships with audiences - something that helped independent creators on platforms such as YouTube attract enormous followings.
Traditional newsrooms, however, operate through a formal editorial process.
"In newsrooms you go through an editorial process. You're not allowed to just write what you want," Prof Lumby said.
"There are sub-editors or producers. There's a process. There's a professional process that curates the information that is then delivered."
Journalism was not infallible, she said, but professional news organisations were subject to editorial standards and accountability mechanisms often absent from social media.
Dr Koskie said AI was taking on some functions traditionally performed by editors, deciding which information audiences see.
"AI is making decisions about what content to show, decisions that a newspaper hands to a qualified and accountable editor, but they are definitely different decisions," he said.
His 2026 research found AI systems were favouring major international outlets while under-representing Australian journalism, raising concerns about the future of local news.
Dr Koskie said governments needed to recognise local journalism as essential democratic infrastructure and work with AI companies to ensure Australians continued to have access to locally produced reporting.
The economic challenge is becoming increasingly urgent.
"The biggest threat to Australian press freedom right now is that there's no money left in it," Prof Lumby said.
Dr Koskie said AI companies had little financial incentive to direct users to original reporting.
"It wants to be the answer for every question," he said.
AI could nevertheless make journalism more accessible, Dr Koskie said, particularly through concise summaries and tools that checked sources.
But accountability remains crucial.
"If people are misinformed about how things are going ... they won't be able to make effective decisions about how to vote, protest, or participate in public discussions," he said.
