The AI black box opened: How LLMs rewrite the rules of corporate issues management and media engagement.
Medianet
Medianet, Australia’s leading media intelligence provider, today releases its latest research work "Opening the Black Box: Generative citation analysis and its implications for reputation and issues management.”
Based on the analysis of 400 LLM responses from platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Summaries for major Australian financial and automotive brands, the report delivers the first of a series of research findings that highlight a new approach for issues management and challenges ahead for the media.
“Our findings show that LLMs require a specific management approach similar to managing any other stakeholder,” said Amrita Sidhu, Managing Director of Medianet.
Key takeaways for communication and media professionals
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A “new” news cycle: LLMs are slow to reflect new, breaking negative news (lagging traditional media by weeks or months) but retain damaging historic issues (like the 2019 Royal Commission) for years, creating a persistent reputational risk unlike the traditional 2-4 week news cycle.
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Corporate content dominates: Contrary to expectations, corporate-owned content (company websites) was the dominant citation source (30%) over mainstream editorial media (22%) for financial brands, implying that brands can proactively shape LLM narratives.
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Sentiment is highly favourable: LLM responses are overwhelmingly positive (97-100% favourable for major banks) compared to traditional media (30-60%), suggesting LLMs primarily pull factual, product-focused information from owned sources.
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Media SoV vs. LLM SoV: Share of Voice (SOV) metrics in LLMs do not mirror traditional media. A brand can have low media visibility but high LLM visibility, proving that media engagement does not guarantee LLM presence (and vice versa).
"These findings suggest that communication professionals need to embrace measurement and evaluation in a way that goes beyond the instantaneous nature of news," added Jacquie Hanna, Head of Insights at Medianet Insights. "We have opened the black box just enough to see that the rules of traditional media engagement have fundamentally changed."
Implications for media and journalism
While these findings pose additional challenges for corporate reputation management, they also imply additional challenges to the core job of media and journalism.
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Declining traffic and revenue: With 45% of citations straight from the brand’s website, organisations seem to be able to shape the LLM narrative. This presents a new battle for website traffic and a potential threat to media business models reliant on it.
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A balancing act: While adapting to the changing revenue model, publishers must now manage considerations of copyright and intellectual property while simultaneously ensuring visibility and feeding the hungry beast of Generative AI by embedding their content into LLM knowledge bases.
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Weakening power to call out organisational wrongdoing: These trends of increasingly owned content combined with the LLMs’ slower uptake of negative breaking news, have redefined the traditional media news cycle. Do these increasing trends mark the erosion of journalism's influence on corporate reputation and accountability for those in power?
“Media organisations must not only become aware of LLM behaviour but seriously tackle the threat AI poses to their business models. This is crucial for safeguarding the monetary and societal value of their content," added Sidhu.
Download the full report here.
About us:
Medianet is recognised as the leading media monitoring and media intelligence service in Australia, recently awarded a global Gold AMEC Awards as media intelligence organisation of the year. Medianet is trusted by Australia’s leading corporate organisations, government agencies and not-for-profits. Owned by Australia’s largest media groups, its integrated platform combines media monitoring, journalist contacts and press release distribution.
Contact details:
Amrita Sidhu
Managing Director, Medianet
+61 481 177 686 [email protected]
Mercedes Carrin
Head of Marketing, Medianet
+61 430 729 397
[email protected]
