“College journalism programs are failing to prepare students for the workforce.”

“Journalism programs are decades behind.”

“If you’re a student considering journalism, I’d skip that degree.”

Well, ouch.

In a written commentary that spurred a lot of debate in journalism circles a few months ago, the top editor of The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com leveled these slams because, he said, journalism schools are not teaching students how to use artificial intelligence to help produce journalism. In fact, Chris Quinn claimed that J-schools are warning against the use of AI.

I wrote in August 2023 about the ways that most newsrooms use, and decline to use, AI in their work. Since then — roughly the AI industry’s time equivalent of since dinosaurs lived — its prevalence in newsrooms has widened with new kinds of uses, including using AI to write full stories from reporters’ notes or from publicly available records and videos.* Quinn’s newsroom uses AI to write whole stories from reporter notes (followed by human editor review).

Journalism schools need to recognize industry changes and teach students accordingly. That can mean teaching toward the future, but not sacrificing the basics for the sake of looking trendy. Which is not a new concern. A 2021 survey of 14 newsroom hiring managers by a professor at Coastal Carolina University concluded that the managers “do not believe journalism schools are teaching enough basic writing and reporting skills and that they are teaching too much social media and digital web writing.”

2021 was before generative AI reached the public and newsrooms. So, I asked a few leaders of Birmingham-area journalism whether they have come to demand some degree of AI competence from their job applicants. None that I contacted are insisting on what Quinn is insisting on, or using AI the way his Plain Dealer is.

Challen Stephens, editor-in-chief of Alabama Media Group (AL.com), said in an email that his newsroom uses AI to “speed up and extend our ability to report, from scraping and analyzing large amounts of data to summarizing videos of lengthy public meetings to helping check grammar.” If an AI meeting summary contains interesting news, reporters take over. “The reporting (throughout AL.com) is all done by reporters in Alabama, and reporters are responsible for every word and quote and fact,” he said.

With AI tools changing constantly, AL.com doesn’t insist on new hires having “any specific (AI) skill set or familiarity with any specific tools. But it’s important that there is a willingness to learn new tools and adapt.” Foremost, Stephens said, new hires “need the ability to communicate clearly, think quickly and manage changing circumstances. We also need to know they are interested in news about and for Alabama.”

The Trussville Tribune has used AI to get and organize data and has tested AI-written stories but never published any because the results weren’t good enough, said publisher Scott Buttram, who wrote an AI policy several weeks ago. “Every single word and/or digit has to be verified,” he said in an email. “At this point, I wouldn’t trust AI over a human.”

He has never asked a job applicant about AI. He looks instead for reporting and writing ability, especially the ability to report in depth on big stories. Video editing and social media skills also matter. He wants candidates to value the role of newspapers. If there’s a skill that young applicants struggle with, it isn’t AI, Buttram said. It’s page design.

The Birmingham Business Journal uses AI for multiple tasks, none of which is writing stories. AI helps to write headlines and social media posts, transcribe interviews, edit stories before a human editor does, and do research, according to Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Rebman.

In evaluating a new hire, she looks for newspaper experience, a desire to break news and the professional demeanor needed to deal with business executives. Specific AI skills aren’t on the list, she said in an email, just an ability and willingness to adopt new uses of AI and other technology approved by the chain’s corporate office.**

Journalism departments shouldn’t (and don’t) discourage use of AI in the field. Pointing out the need for selective use — and citing the integrity damage that has arisen from going too far —is not blanket discouragement. At the same time, though, journalism educators correctly realize that not every newsroom is just like the Cleveland Plain Dealer. At least not at the moment.

 *The expansion of AI has been fraught. In just the past few weeks, the issue of appropriate use of AI has led to a one-day strike, a byline boycott, formal union grievances and multiple public expressions of resistance by rank-and-file journalists.

**Alabama Media Group, American City Business Journals and the Cleveland Plain Dealer are all owned by Advance Publications.

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Tom Arenberg is an instructor of news media at the University of Alabama. He worked for The Birmingham News and the Alabama Media Group for 30 years. He originally published this commentary as a post on his blog, The Arenblog.

About News is a BirminghamWatch feature that publishes commentary by those who teach the craft and think about the values and performance of today’s journalism. BW shares links to About News articles on Facebook and invites readers to join the conversation there.