Platform power will be put to the test

In 2026, the biggest shift in journalism won’t come from AI. It will come from platform power. As more people get their news through TikTok, Instagram and social platforms, these companies are becoming the de facto editors-in-chief of the world: deciding what is visible, what is suppressed and, in some cases, which accounts disappear without warning. This will turn platform governance into a core journalism issue rather than a tech-policy concern.

At the same time, audiences — especially young people — are demanding moral clarity, not performative neutrality. In an environment where state propaganda, military PR and far-right disinformation campaigns spread quickly and are amplified by platform algorithms and the wider media ecosystem, journalism will only cut through if it centres truth, context and human impact. The outlets that thrive will be those willing to say plainly what is happening and why it matters, even when that clarity is uncomfortable.

Smaller, youth-led newsrooms will become increasingly important because they already know how to operate inside platform constraints: navigating inconsistent moderation, adapting formats quickly and insisting on moral clarity in moments when many institutions hesitated or looked away.

AI will speed up workflows, but it won’t solve the deeper problem: journalism depends on systems it does not control. But what journalists can control is the work itself: moral clarity, honest framing and a commitment to telling the truth in ways that platforms cannot flatten, and in 2026, that will matter more than ever.