Schibsted’s IN/LAB reimagines how young people engage with news

Schibsted's IN/LAB explores how journalism can evolve for audiences increasingly distant from traditional news. At our Newsroom Summitin Copenhagen, Belenn Rebecka Bekele, Program Manager, and Molly Grönlund Müller, Community Researcher at the lab, shared insights from more than three years of research and co-creation with young people.

IN/LAB was founded in response to two parallel developments, Bekele explained. "The firstwas the growing challenge of news avoidance and societal fragmentation. Many people, particularly younger audiences, are opting out of traditional news because they find it stressful, negative, or frustrating," she said.

"At the same time, different groups in society are experiencing increasingly divergent realities, shaped in part by the information they consume."

The seconddevelopment, Bekele added, was more hopeful: "New technologies are already changing how news is created and consumed. While they contribute to disruption, they also open real opportunities for journalism to rethink its relationship with audiences."

Together, these shifts prompted IN/LAB to explore what she described as "possible news futures" - looking beyond the most probable to consider what might be preferable for both audiences and news media.

To do this, the innovation lab works primarily with groups distant from traditional news, focusing on young people and young adults up to their early thirties.

"We want to understand the challenges they face today, the solutions they imagine, and how journalism can better respond to their needs," Bekele said.

How IN/LAB works

The lab combines research, co-creation programmes, events, and experiments. Bekele outlined how the lab uses mixed research methods, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, to study topics ranging from young people's AI habits to their relationships with news creators and influencers.

In co-creation programmes, young participants explore challenges with news and imagine future solutions alongside journalists and newsrooms.

"Our initiatives are not about producing finished products," Bekele said. "They are about generating prototypes, concepts, insights, and recommendations that can inform editorial thinking."

The lab also convenes events bringing together journalists, young people, and other stakeholders to exchange perspectives.

One recurring initiative is the Futures Forum, where participants discuss questions such as which futures news organisations actually want, what a preferable future looks like, and whether journalists and audiences share the same understanding.

Occasionally, IN/LAB runs experiments to test ideas that emerge from this work. Over three years, the lab has engaged hundreds of young people and identified recurring themes in their expectations of news.

What young people want: three insights

Insight one: help navigating complexity
Young people want guidance in today's complex information environment. "Staying informed can feel like an exhausting, full-time job," Bekele said. "The challenge is not finding information, but making sense of it."

Participants imagined new forms of support:

• Fact Buoy: an editorial AI assistant trained on news content. It can fact-check claims on pages and apps, allow users to verify information, explain why claims are true or false, and adapt content through translation or different formats.
• News Clinic:an AI avatar that detects when users are consuming emotionally heavy news and offers help if stress or discomfort is sensed.
  

Insight two: demand for agency and interaction
Young people want greater control over how they engage with news and, in some cases, how it is shaped.

"This is not only about choosing different formats," said Molly Grönlund Müller. "It's about news currently feeling too fixed, with very little space for interaction."

Prototypes illustrate this desire:

• News as Music:Transforms articles into beats or rap songs.
• Flow:Lets users choose formats, see which perspectives are included in a story, and request additional viewpoints. "AI collects feedback and presents it to journalists," Müller said, "helping reporters decide how to expand or improve stories."

Insight three: expectations of social responsibility

Young people expect journalism to act responsibly and help bridge societal divides. "Many have grown up in a world they see as volatile, polarised, and divided, and they hope news can serve as a positive, unifying force," Müller said.

A spring survey of 500 young participants explored views on AI and news. While many recognised AI benefits, they also expressed concern about societal impacts.

Participants described tech companies, social platforms, and sometimes governments as making "reckless bets" with AI and hoped news media could be an exception.

They expect journalism to:

• Minimise environmental impact
• Avoid reinforcing stereotypes or prejudice
• Connect people across differing perspectives

This desire for bridge-building appeared repeatedly in the lab's research, including the News Perspectives interview study, where young people said journalism should foster greater understanding between groups in society.

Questions for news organisations

Bekele and Müller stressed that exploring possible futures does not mean all futures are desirable or likely. Instead, the insights point to questions news organisations need to confront:

• How much responsibility should news media take for helping users assess reliability beyond their own platforms?
• How much power should be handed over to audiences in shaping their news experiences?
• Should journalism play a more active role in connecting people across differences - and if so, what should that role look like?
  

Looking ahead

Bekele outlined two upcoming IN/LAB projects:

• News Creators Project: Explores young people's relationships with news creators on social media through participatory research, creator interviews, and a recent co-creation project bringing journalists, creators, and young people together to co-create news stories around a political debate in Sweden.
• Parlia experiment:Tests the dialogue platform Parlia with young users in Sweden. Participants respond to statements on a wide range of topics and compare their views with other demographic groups, aiming to foster curiosity, empathy, and greater understanding across differing perspectives.

Neha Gupta

Research Editor

[email protected]