”We are witnessing in the digital news reports a major shift since the COVID-19 crisis. (…). During the COVID crisis, the main information source became social media. With social media, you have many, many difficulties in finding the right information or the correct information”, stated Raluca Radu, a Professor of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Bucharest, speaker for the Budapest Forum and contributor to the Reuters Institute Digital Report.
In a conversation for the Review of Democracy, she explains how social platforms like TikTok, WhatsApp groups, and AI-driven chatbots reconfigure the trust towards information. As Raluca Radu clearly emphasizes, COVID-19 marked a shift in media consumption. During the pandemic, the main source of information became the short-form video content on platforms such as TikTok. Some newsrooms recognized that their audiences migrated elsewhere and rushed to follow. They tried to adapt to this changing landscape by establishing social media presence. By now, social media is not only an additional channel of dissemination but, in some cases, the only way to reach citizens who do not read traditional websites or watch TV. Thus, social media and algorithms redefine the public sphere worldwide.
In parallel, as Raluca Radu emphasized, the AI chatbots and other automated systems might become the norm:
”if now 3 to 5% of the population from 18 to 24 say that their main source of information is the chatbot, I’m sure that in the following years, you are going to see more and more people using chatbots”
This poses new problems. Whilst seemingly the AI data appears to be neutral, it might often be biased. Thus, this shift might need new conceptual approaches. Throughout her research, Raluca Radu puts a strong emphasis on the topic of trust. As she explains, this concept can be extremely valuable. For instance, trust in media tends to decrease during political crises, particularly when politicians attack media companies.
Economic divides complicate this already fragile situation. The misinformation and radicalization is also created by the lack of access to good quality information. Whilst the Nordic countries show high subscription rates and media trust, the Romanian model follows a different model. Here, the audiences expect free and high-quality information. In this context, investigative journalism relies more often on crowdfunding than on paywalls.
Consequences are visible. Romania’s 2024 elections showed that the rise of fringe political figures such as Călin Georgescu was driven less by overt campaigning (grassroots) than coordinated comment networks and WhatsApp chains (known as astroturfing). The comments on the posts were often AI-generated. Such tactics were much more difficult to spot by researchers and electoral regulators.
Raluca Radu is not merely diagnosing the problem. Instead, as a researcher in PROMPT, she is contributing to developing an AI-assisted tool that tracks harmful narratives across languages and platforms. Throughout the podcast, Raluca Radu’s emphasis is that the public sphere seems to be fragmented, but not beyond repair. Understanding the new frameworks of information consumption is the first step towards building strong, trustworthy content.
Raluca Radu is a professor of journalism and communication studies at the University of Bucharest, Romania, and the former Director of the Department of Journalism (2015-2023). She is a PhD coordinator within the Doctoral School in Communication Studies and the Interdisciplinary School of Doctoral Studies, at the University of Bucharest. Her research interests include media ethics, media economics and audience studies (with a focus on digital audiences and on teenagers), and radicalization on social media. She is the author of the Romanian page, in the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, and a researcher in the Romanian team for PROMPT (Predictive Research On Misinformation and Narratives Propagation Trajectories). She authored and coordinated five books in Romanian on public communication ethics, media economics, data visualization, cultural industries and national and international organizations. Raluca Radu had visiting fellowships at the Aarhus School of Business, Denmark; Universita della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland; European University Institute, Italy and the Center for Advanced Internet Studies, Germany.
The interview was conducted by Adrian Matus. Lilit Hakobyan edited the audio file.
