The GenAI Catch-22: Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Norwegian Newsrooms During the 2025 Parliamentary Election

Source

• Source name: arXiv
• Source kind: paper
• Authors / organization: Mari Reisjå, Anders Sundnes Løvlie
• Venue: arXiv: cs.CY
• Published: 2026-08-11
• Collected: 2026-08-12
• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2608.10773v1
• PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.10773v1
• DOI: UNKNOWN
• Registry group: academic_apis_and_preprints
• Evidence role: canonical_academic_index
• Language: en
• Country / region: UNKNOWN

Plain-Language Brief

The study examines the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in Norwegian newsrooms during the 2025 parliamentary election and identifies potential risks and challenges associated with it.

What the Document Says

• The study focuses on the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Norwegian Newsrooms during the 2025 parliamentary election.
• Based on interviews, the researchers analyze how ambitions fared against technical and practical challenges.
• They highlight an internal threat from journalists' own use of AI and contrast this with the focus on external disinformation threats.
• Newsroom managers share unrealistic beliefs about GenAI capabilities and pace of development, causing plans for audience-facing services to collapse and leading to more mundane uses internally.
• The study identifies a 'GenAI Catch-22' in newsrooms' resilience against GenAI influence: the need for human expertise to monitor GenAI tools may deteriorate due to extensive use of GenAI, making it difficult to monitor the systems adequately.

Key Concepts Mentioned

• Generative Artificial Intelligence
• Journalism
• Norwegian Newsrooms
• Parliamentary Election
• Sociotechnical Imaginaries
• GenAI Catch-22

Claims Made by the Document

• There are potential detrimental effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence on journalism and its democratic function.
• Newsroom managers hold unrealistic beliefs about the capabilities and pace of development of GenAI technology.
• The internal use of AI by journalists poses a risk.

Evidence Used

• Interviews with managers and journalists over a ten-month period

Methods / Approach

UNKNOWN

Limitations Stated by the Authors

UNKNOWN

Limitations Noted by the Agent

Agent interpretation — not from the source.

UNKNOWN

Open Questions

UNKNOWN

Notes for Future Q&A

May include interpretation. Labeled where it does.

UNKNOWN

Raw Abstract / Excerpt

The increasing use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in journalism raises concerns about possible detrimental effects both on journalism and its democratic function. We explore these risks through a case study of GenAI in Norwegian Newsrooms during the 2025 parliamentary election campaign. Based on interviews with managers and journalists over a ten-month period, we analyse how ambitious visions fared in the face of technological and practical challenges. We highlight the risk of an internal threat stemming from the journalists' own use of AI, contrasting the dominant focus on external disinformation threats. We show how newsroom managers shared sociotechnical imaginaries resulting in unrealistically optimistic beliefs about the capabilities of the technology and the pace of development, leading to plans for audience-facing GenAI services collapsing and giving way to more mundane uses of GenAI tools internally in the newsrooms. Furthermore, we identify a vulnerability in the newsroom's resilience against GenAI influence: a GenAI Catch-22. In order to monitor the GenAI tools and prevent errors and undue influence, newsrooms rely on human expertise. But by using GenAI extensively, the newsrooms risk a deterioration of human expertise, preventing them from monitoring the GenAI systems adequately.