Large Language Models and the Public Arena: a Threat to Democracy? Insights from Italian Journalism

This paper investigates the adoption and governance of Generative AI (GenAI) in the Italian journalistic field, examining its implications for democracy and the public arena. Drawing on 13 in-depth interviews and one collective interview with journalists, union representatives, and ethics board members, the study explores how GenAI is perceived, used, and contested in Italian newsrooms. Findings show a widespread yet unstructured use of GenAI, characterized by both instrumental and critical attitudes. While GenAI is generally framed as a supporting tool for editorial work, concerns emerge around job displacement, editorial independence, opacity, and the commodification of journalistic content. By applying the framework of sociotechnical imaginaries, the study identifies four dominant risk narratives emerge —substitution, mistrusted information, machine-driven editorial logic, and surveillance—reflecting deeper anxieties about power asymmetries in the information ecosystem. The Italian case highlights the need for journalist-led governance strategies and contextualized AI adoption models, as shown by Il Manifesto. Overall, the paper argues that integrating LLMs in journalism is not only a technical matter but a profoundly political issue, demanding participatory and ethically grounded regulation to protect democratic values.