ChatGPT, Generative AI, and an Epistemic Opportunity for Journalistic Authority

Journalists have long been concerned about the boundaries of their craft, wary that their work might be replicated by actors who do not adhere to the profession’s normative values. Early artificial intelligence (AI) technologies seemed unlikely to meet journalism’s standards of precision and judgment, but the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 signaled a shift toward generative AI, which directly challenges journalism’s central knowledge-creation practices—particularly writing. Employing journalistic authority as a conceptual framework, this study examines how journalists interpret and respond to this epistemic crisis through a two-stage qualitative analysis: (1) a thematic examination of metajournalistic discourse (n=94 articles) surrounding ChatGPT and related generative chatbots, and (2) in-depth interviews with practicing journalists (n=21) about their evaluation, adoption, and integration of generative AI into newsroom workflows. Ultimately, we argue that epistemic crises such as this may also be conceptualized as epistemic opportunities, offering journalists a chance to reinforce their professional boundaries and distinguish their craft from that of more peripheral actors.