News vs Noise: what role should public service media play in an AI-disrupted world?

News vs Noise: what role should public service media play in an AI-disrupted world?

In 2026, a secure supply of verified information for all audiences looks to be essential for a stable and sovereign democracy. A common set of facts enables a single conversation about democratic decisions and can act as a bulwark against attempts at manipulation and propaganda, including from abroad. But established and newer news providers are struggling to make newsgathering pay as AI aggregates their journalism and makes their brand names less prominent. This Ditchley discussion will consider what role, if any, public service media should play in securing that information supply. In this new AI-disrupted landscape, should public service media play a new role in supporting the whole national ecosystem to deliver and distribute trustworthy news from and about their own country? And how much does public service media need extra support now in order to do what it has always done: to produce and distribute verified news? Or, alternatively, is public service media a relic of a bygone age, shaped around long-gone privileged access to scarce distribution pipelines, and therefore does the likely coming world of AI agents and increasingly personalised news render the public service media model obsolete?