Scrolling with (dis)comfort on AI-generated news: exploring group differences and the role of social media use in Portugal

Paulo Couraceiro; Miguel Paisana; António Vasconcelos

Scrolling with (dis)comfort on AI-generated news: exploring group differences and the role of social media use in Portugal

Couraceiro, Paulo ^[1] ; Paisana, Miguel ^[2] ; Vasconcelos, António ^[2]
1. [1] Universidade do Minho
  
  Universidade do Minho
  
  Braga (São José de São Lázaro), Portugal
2. [2] Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
  
  Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
  
  Socorro, Portugal
Localización: Revista de comunicación, ISSN 1684-0933, ISSN-e 2227-1465, Vol. 24, Nº. 2, 2025, págs. 83-107
Idioma: inglés
DOI: 10.26441/RC24.2-2025-4049
Títulos paralelos:
- Navegando con (des)comodidad por las noticias generadas por IA: explorando diferencias entre grupos y la importancia del uso de las redes sociales en Portugal
Enlaces
- Texto completo (pdf)
Resumen
- español
  Propósito. El creciente papel de la IA en la producción de noticias plantea cuestiones sobre la aceptación de la audiencia. Se exploran diferencias en los niveles de comodidad con noticias generadas por IA y asistidas por IA, considerando el efecto de las fuentes principales de noticias. Se plantea que el uso de redes sociales como principal acceso a las noticias puede influir en la comodidad con la IA debido a la familiaridad con la personalización algorítmica. Metodología. Se realizó un análisis cuantitativo con 2012 internautas portugueses. Se aplicaron pruebas no paramétricas para comparaciones de grupo y se creó un índice compuesto de comodidad con la IA para evaluar interacciones entre conocimiento de IA y fuente principal de noticias. Resultados y conclusiones. Se observa mayor comodidad cuando la IA actúa como asistente en vez de generadora de noticias. Existen diferencias significativas entre grupos según factores demográficos y confianza. Se identifican efectos en la comparación entre distintos niveles de conocimiento de IA y entre usuarios de redes sociales y de noticias tradicionales. Aunque no estadísticamente significativo, el efecto de interacción muestra que los usuarios con mayor conocimiento de IA que confían en redes sociales como su principal fuente de noticias presentan un aumento en la comodidad con las noticias generadas por IA. Contribución. Estos resultados resaltan la relevancia de la fuente principal de noticias en la aceptación de la IA en el periodismo, especialmente ante un entorno mediático cambiante, donde tecnologías como chatbots podrían desempeñar un papel clave en la distribución de noticias.
- English
  Purpose. The increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in news production raises important questions about audience acceptance. This research explores group differences in comfort levels toward news generated by AI and news produced with AI assistance, focusing on the effect of the main news sources. It is hypothesized that using social media as a main gateway for news may influence comfort with AI-generated news due to the users’ familiarity with algorithm personalization. Methodology. A quantitative analysis was conducted on a representative sample of 2012 Portuguese internet users. Nonparametric tests were applied for group comparisons, and a composite AI Comfort Index was developed to enable parametric testing of interaction effects between awareness of AI and main source of news. Results and Conclusions. The analysis identifies higher comfort levels when AI is presented as an assistant rather than the primary generator of the news. The results highlight significant differences among groups based on demographic and trust-related factors. Additionally, significant effects are detected in the comparison between groups with lower and higher levels of AI awareness and between social media and traditional news users. Despite not statistically significant, the interaction effect reveals that where users with higher awareness of AI who relied on social media as their main source of news shows a noticeable increase in comfort with AI-generated news. Contribution. These findings underscore the importance of considering the main source of news in discussions of AI acceptance in journalism, particularly as current developments point out that new AI powered resources, namely chatbots, could play an important role in the news distribution.
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