AI in J-School: How Journalism Classes Are Adapting

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As colleges and universities reckon with how and when to include artificial intelligence in education, journalism programs sit in a unique position. Because the industry is driven by both newness and accuracy, some journalism professors say AI tools that synthesize past sources and produce hallucinations are not well-suited to take over human jobs. Yet AI is affecting beat coverage and data analysis, so journalism students will need AI literacy skills after graduating.

At three of the top public journalism schools in the U.S. — the University of Kansas, the University of Oregon and the University of Missouri — faculty said they have not faced top-down mandates on AI instruction but instead have the freedom to introduce AI at their discretion. Largely, faculty agreed on delaying AI-based assignments until students develop core reporting skills.

“Your contribution is the original reporting,” said Liz Lucas, journalism instructor and AI faculty fellow at the University of Missouri. “You talked to somebody, or you found this data set, or you were at this event.”

CORE SKILLS AND AI LITERACY

Original reporting, several J-school faculty members explained, requires a core skill set: developing relationships with sources, asking good questions, scrutinizing and fact-checking sources, and constructing an article.

“I don’t think an AI can interview a person the way the human can,” Lucas said. “There are many aspects of human intelligence that are not verbal, and as of right now, that’s a unique skill that we have.”

Some journalism professors say their industry contacts still prize these core skills but also seek graduates with AI literacy. Samuel Muzhingi, a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant at the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, is part of a group of researchers interviewing employers about what they want from graduates.

“They don’t necessarily need…

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