Do Malaysian Newsrooms Jump on the AI Bandwagon? Empirical Evidence From Journalists’ Perspectives

Jiankun Gong, Yu Zuo, Nur Izzati Aziz, Mumtaz Aini Alivi, Kunjin Luo and Yuqing Lin
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Jiankun Gong: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Yu Zuo: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Nur Izzati Aziz: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Mumtaz Aini Alivi: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Kunjin Luo: School of Journalism and Communication, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China
Yuqing Lin: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia

Media and Communication, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly promoted as a transformative force in journalism, yet most research on newsroom AI adoption remains concentrated in Western and other well-resourced media settings. This study examines how AI is interpreted, organized, and used in Malaysian newsrooms, offering insight from an emerging Southeast Asian media context. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 journalists across six Malaysian news organizations, the article investigates how national AI governance signals are translated into newsroom norms, how organizational resources and managerial priorities shape uptake, and how AI is incorporated into everyday reporting, editing, and verification. The analysis shows that AI adoption in Malaysian newsrooms is uneven and selective rather than uniform. First, national AI momentum has not yet produced strong newsroom-level governance; instead, the practice remains shaped by limited written rules, selective disclosure, and strong human accountability. Second, organizational capacity is patchy, with uneven access to tools, training, and infrastructural support across organizations and roles. Third, AI is used mainly in bounded, assistive tasks such as transcription, translation, summarization, and headline generation, while verification labor is redistributed rather than reduced. The findings identify a typology of newsroom responses—cautious minimalists, experimental pragmatists, and human-gated adopters—showing that Malaysian newsrooms are not simply “jumping on the AI bandwagon,” but engaging AI pragmatically under uneven governance and resource conditions.

Keywords: AI; generative AI; journalism practice; Malaysia; newsroom governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:meanco:v14:y:2026:a:12492

DOI: 10.17645/mac.12492

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