GenAI Adoption in Journalism: Innovation and Transformation from an International to a Catalan Media Perspective

This study examines how Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is being adopted by Catalan news organizations and how its integration reshapes newsroom practices, professional roles, and accountability standards. The analysis is informed by two previous qualitative studies conducted within the European Commission-funded Media Councils in the Digital Age project. The first was based on more than 50 interviews with journalists and fact-checkers from 12 European countries and the United States and identified the emergence of hybrid professional roles, while also recommending the disclosure of AI-generated content and greater transparency regarding the algorithms used by media organizations. The second comprised 27 interviews with Press Council representatives from 19 European countries and Canada, and highlighted concerns that reliance on technological systems, metrics, and marketing strategies may weaken ethical standards and verification practices. Rather than serving only as background, the thematic categories developed in these two previous studies were revisited and comparatively re-analysed alongside nine in-depth interviews with journalists, editors, and media executives from Catalan news organizations. This comparative analysis examines how GenAI is transforming newsroom organization, production routines, and professional practices, identifying common patterns and contextual variation across the earlier international findings and the Catalan cases. The findings suggest that, within the organizations studied, professional roles are being reconfigured through the hybridization of functions and the incorporation of new competencies, such as data analysis, automated system oversight, and technological governance. At the same time, accelerated GenAI adoption in journalistic routines contrasts with slower development of ethical frameworks and governance mechanisms, suggesting a gap between technological innovation and institutional adaptation.