Human-Centric AI in Digital Journalism and Trust in Digital Media

Abstract

How Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the news in the world of digital journalism: efficiency of operations and scale on the one hand and issues of credibility and public trust on the other. This research assesses trust in Digital News under the influence of Human-Centric AI and considers perceptual mechanisms. It is inspired by an integrative paradigm including Media Ecology Theory, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Human-Centre Design (HCD) and Source Credibility Theory. A quantitative approach was used, data from questionnaires of 306 subjects were collected and validity, reliability and linear regression tests were used to analyze the data. Its findings demonstrate that Human-Centric AI is a positive, and indeed significant, predictor of trust (β = 0.553, p < 0.05) with moderate explanatory power (R2 = 0.306). This suggests that transparency, accountability and human oversight build trust, although other variables are also significant. The study highlights the evolving role of AI within the credibility structure of digital journalism—a structure in which trust is the outcome of interacting factors.