Friday 22nd of November 10:15-12:00 At BET.F.108
On the 22nd of November, DIGSUM is hosting a seminar where Cornelia Brantner, Karlstad University, will talk about “How Sourcing Behaviors of Generative AI-powered Search Engines Could Hurt Journalism and Democracy: A Comparative Study of Political News Retrieval in Five Languages”.
Abstract
In this talk, I will present a study examining news media's role in the context of generative AI-enhanced search engines, focusing on the 2024 Taiwan presidential election. Using Microsoft's Copilot, we analyzed how election news is retrieved across five languages: English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, German, and Swedish. Our findings reveal that, despite providing rapid access to synthesized information with an emphasis on transparency, Copilot often generates misinformation and inaccurately attributes sources. A notable pattern emerged in the analysis, showing a heavy reliance on English-language sources—particularly from the UK and US—even when searching in other languages, such as Swedish and Traditional Chinese. This trend raises concerns about the homogenization of information and the marginalization of regional perspectives. The study highlights the tension faced by news media as they balance their role as authoritative sources in democratic societies against the influence of dominant technological infrastructures. We will discuss how AI-driven news retrieval practices impact media diversity, democratic engagement, and the potential repercussions of news outlets opting out of AI crawling. The talk will emphasize the need to enhance transparency, factual correctness, accuracy in source attribution, and accountability in AI-generated content to foster informed citizenship in the digital era.
Cornelia is a a professor at the Department of Geography, Media and Communication at Karlstad University and coordinator of the Centre for Geomedia Studies. Her current research focuses on analyzing geomedia, visual communication, digital communication, and digitalized publics. Cornelia investigates these while considering the increasing visuality and multimodality of communication and against the background of the increasing entanglement of ‘online’ and ‘offline’ spheres, especially with regard to the mediatization of space. In connection with this, she deals with questions of participation and how the field of tension between visibility and invisibility is fathomed, as well as with questions of inequality and responsibility in digitized spaces.
For more information about the event, see [here].