In Search of the Global South: Assessing Attitudes of Latin American Journalists to Artificial Intelligence in Journalism

Abstract

This research observes the relationship between Latin American (LA) journalists from six countries that are rarely observed by international scholars (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Peru and Venezuela) and artificial intelligence (AI). Particularly, it seeks to identify and compare their attitudes, perceived constraints, and knowledge on the state of the art of the application of AI to professional journalistic practices. In tune with the quantitative turn in contemporary journalism and due to the lack of quantitative measures in this field, this research also develops and psychometrically validates tools for measuring such aspects. The main results reveal the existence of differences in these journalists’ attitudes and knowledge with regard to AI that can be attributed to their cultural context. They also show similarities to attitudes of journalists from Northern countries to AI. This research fills in the gap in the existing literature on journalism, AI, journalists’ attitudes, Global South and LA journalism.