Poster Session 5, 3:15 PM - 4:00 PM: Campus Center Auditorium [A79]

Insights into Tomorrow’s Newsroom, Today: Making Sense of AI in the Student Newsroom

Presenter: Grace Chai

Faculty Sponsor: Heesoo Jang

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Journalism

ABSTRACT

This research study examines how student journalists at the Massachusetts Daily Collegian understand, discuss and make decisions about artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism. While studies about how professionals in the industry are adapting to this new technology have begun to emerge, there is little being studied about the next generation of journalists who have grown up with rapid developments in technology. Bringing the discourse of how AI should be used in journalism to the collegiate level, I explore how student journalists in the newsroom make decisions about AI, whether their chosen beat or expertise influences their perspective and what boundaries students, especially student leaders, are enacting to protect journalism's integrity. This study aims to directly benefit the Collegian by providing information on what its members think about AI and how it should be used. The report would inform a comprehensive AI policy for the newsroom, as one currently does not exist. Through the data collected from interviews, this study will spark conversation about the pressing issue of how AI should be used in the newsroom while protecting journalistic integrity and agency. By bringing the issue of AI to the forefront of the college newsroom, I hope to start a much-needed discussion about how we can approach a tool that has potential and pitfalls that have yet to be discovered.