Authorship and trust in media texts in the age of AI

Abstract

In the context of the digital transformation of the media environment, attitudes toward the institution of authorship are changing. New possibilities for text creation by both humans and artificial intelligence (AI) are contributing to a growing crisis of trust among audiences. This study focuses on the factors that shape trust in such materials and examines how audiences assess the credibility of media content in the AI era.

The research aims to identify the role of authorship and the key criteria of trust in media texts, as well as to analyse how such texts are perceived by contemporary audiences.

The empirical part of the study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. An online survey based on a Likert scale was conducted anonymously to ensure the validity of the results. Respon-dents were asked to evaluate two texts without information about their authorship or publication source. The qualitative stage included a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of the academic com-munity (master’s and doctoral students) and media and PR practitioners.

The findings indicate that audiences do not always confidently distinguish between texts created by humans and those generated with the use of AI. Trust is primarily associated with clarity and naturalness of expression, as well as with the transparency of the source and the author’s responsibility for the con-tent. Artificial intelligence is increasingly perceived as a supportive assistant in content creation, while in socially significant contexts the role of the author and professional responsibility remain essential.

Audience attitudes toward AI-generated content are gradually shifting from caution to a more bal-anced and selective evaluation.