Joon Soo Lim, associate professor of public relations, co-authored the paper, “News Audiences in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Perceptions and Behaviors of Optimizers, Mainstreamers, and Skeptics” with Regina Luttrell, associate professor of public relations and associate dean of research and creative activities; Dennis Kinsey, professor of public relations and director of public diplomacy and global communications; and Jun Zhang ’21 Ph.D. of Middle Tennessee State University.
Donghee Shin of Zayed University and Stephen Masiclat, director of education technology at the Innovation Foundation, were also co-authors. The paper was published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
This study segmented digital news users according to their engagement with news personalization services. A national survey of 1,369 randomly selected digital news users was conducted. Three groups were identified through latent class analysis: Optimizers, Mainstreamers, and Skeptics. Optimizers had the most favorable attitude toward the services and the highest perceived contingency of news personalization. Skeptics showed the least favorable attitude and had the lowest perceived contingency. Optimizers were the most active consumers of digital news platforms, whereas skeptics were lagging in using digital news services. The study discussed the differences between these groups and their implications on news organizations.