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Out of fear and confusion, we handed the social media leadership keys to early-career journalists. Let’s take a more collaborative approach with AI.

By Sara Bauknecht

I came of age in journalism when newsroom editors were coming to terms with the fact that social media was not a fleeting fad. They realized they needed journalists equipped to help them wrangle the wild west of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the now-defunct Google+. 

Because I was one of the few people in the newsroom younger than 30, I was tapped to help my colleagues face this new frontier. But just because I was a Millennial who knew the difference between a “post” and a “poke” on Facebook, that didn’t mean I was an experienced social media strategist; those skills came later through years of training, practice and mentorship. 

As Gen Z journalists embark on their careers, generative AI is the new terrain that newsrooms are still striving to navigate. I’m no longer working for a daily legacy news outlet (nor part of the under-30 club). But as a student media adviser, journalism professor and media consultant who regularly collaborates with news organizations, I still have a window into how today’s newsroom leaders and their staffs are approaching these latest technological advancements – and what I’m seeing is sparking for me some serious déjà vu. 

I’ve witnessed a spectrum of responses from journalists to generative AI since late 2022 when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, putting a conversational AI agent at the fingertips of the masses for free and transforming the way we engage with chatbots. 

At one end are those who recognize that large language models are here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future) and are opting to approach AI head on, regardless of whether or not they’re personally a fan of it. Those who are indifferent to the technology, along with others who think they can do a Houdini on AI and make it disappear by pretending it doesn’t exist, make up a lot of the rest of the spectrum. Also in the mix are well-meaning journalists who want to learn more but either don’t know where to start, don’t have the resources to further their AI education or both. 

All of this is coupled with the all-too-familiar refrain of, “Let’s ask the young people. They’ll know what to do.”

There’s some research that aligns with these anecdotal observations. A survey from The Associated Press of nearly 300 professional journalists in the U.S. and in Europe found that while almost 70% reported using AI in some capacity in their newsrooms, less than half of respondents said their newsroom had AI guidelines – while another 60% were only aware of some guidelines existing. Nearly 20% said lack of training for ethical AI use was a prominent challenge. 

Meanwhile, in the college newsroom, I’ve observed many of my journalism students not wanting to touch generative AI while honing their craft. They cite a variety of reasons for their staunch anti-AI stances, including not wanting it to stifle their creativity and concern for its environmental impact, embedded biases and privacy risks. Beyond my own university, I’ve spoken about this topic at conferences and workshops across the U.S., and I’ve heard my students’ views echoed by many of their peers. 

On one hand, their reservations are valid, and their commitment to ethical journalism, human creativity and critical thinking is commendable. On the other hand, this means students with this point of view aren’t going to have the answers to newsrooms’ AI quandaries any more than I did for unlocking social media success in the 2010s. 

I pose this plea: This time around, professional newsrooms should avoid assuming that today’s college students and recent grads are AI experts here to save the day. At the same time, rising journalists, along with their professors and student media advisers, have a responsibility to prepare themselves to effectively and ethically engage with AI. 

Here are some ways professional and student journalists can work together and help each other explore AI’s possibilities and potential pitfalls. 

Hiding from AI is not the answer

“Ignoring it is something you don’t want to do,” said Lynn Walsh, assistant director of Trusting News, which aims to educate and empower journalists on ways to evolve their practice to actively build trust with their communities. “You don’t want to get so far left behind that the technology is being pushed on you, without you having control over it or understanding how to use it.” 

Part of Walsh’s work with Trusting News involves learning about why the public’s trust in news and information is eroding, developing possible solutions to address these challenges and recruiting people to test those strategies. The nonprofit has been researching how audiences feel about news organizations using AI and learned that, similarly to journalists, everyday people also are seeking support to make sense of it. 

“People really right now want help navigating what AI is and understanding it, and they would welcome that from journalists,” Walsh said. “We’ve found that when journalists do that, it actually did build trust with the newsroom and the news content.” 

In response, Trusting News developed resources, or Trust Kits, to help newsrooms get feedback about how their audiences feel about AI and other ways to disclose how journalists are and aren’t using AI to promote transparency and conversations with their communities. 

And if you’re a student or professional journalist who’s staying away from AI, Walsh encourages self-reflection to learn where that discomfort is coming from – and to acknowledge that attitudes toward AI don’t have to be all or nothing. 

“I think there is a way to embrace the technology without always using it,” she said. “That’s where understanding what it’s good at and what it’s bad at comes into play.”

Encourage experimentation

Having an open mind about AI doesn’t mean having to leverage it in all areas of your newsroom. Instead, think about where some of your pain points are – and then see if perhaps generative AI can help. 

That’s what The Lenfest Institute has been helping newsrooms do through its AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program, which pairs news outlets with an AI fellow for two years to investigate ways AI can help them drive business sustainability and innovation. The Baltimore Banner, Chicago Public Media, The Seattle Times, ProPublica, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning News and NEWSWELL at Arizona State University are among the fellowship’s participants.

“The program does not ask people to use AI to generate journalism,” says Tristan Loper, who heads national programs for Lenfest. “What (AI fellows) are doing is looking at the outcomes that the staff wants to achieve. Do you want to achieve more audience, save more time, make more money on ad sales? Let’s see if there are technologies we can bring to you or develop for you to make your life easier.”

The program has been successful because it approaches AI literacy in newsrooms authentically and organically. In other words, it’s not forcing anyone – especially the editorial operation – to go all-in on AI. According to Loper, the program focuses on the business side of news, inviting people to weigh in on their pain points to see if AI could address them, while not compromising the outlet’s integrity. 

Sometimes, this helped even leery journalists warm up to the idea of experimenting with AI. In one newsroom, Loper recalled, he was told that “there is no way the news side will participate.” 

“They started participating in a pretty short amount of time because they saw that on the business side there were problems being solved,” he said. That prompted some journalists to ask, “I wonder if AI can help me with this?” 

Don’t make assumptions

If you’re going to introduce AI experimentation into your workflow, begin by leveling the field; make space for people to share their experiences, questions and concerns, instead of assuming who the tech adopters vs. laggards are – because the truth may surprise you. 

Whenever I teach a course with an AI literacy component to it, I often start by surveying the group so I can establish a baseline for their generative AI knowledge. A class I taught in 2025 had several students who disclosed not really understanding what purpose AI tools served; another one said my course was the first time he ever intentionally experimented with a generative AI tool. As an educator and student media adviser, this intel helps me to meet student journalists where they are, instead of wrongfully assuming they’re AI-fluent because they’re digital natives. 

This can be replicated in a professional newsroom, too. In addition to a survey, some newsrooms hold regular workshops or brown-bag discussions so people can hear from guest speakers, learn new skills or even air their AI grievances as the staff works together to determine the role AI should and shouldn’t play in their processes. 

These info sessions can be intergenerational and used to promote collegial camaraderie. Take for example Advance Local, which owns more than 20 news outlets across the U.S. It hosted “AI in the Newsroom” workshops that brought together college students with working journalists.

When in doubt, start by crafting an ethics and usage policy

If your outlet is intentionally using AI in its work, craft a policy that details when it’s permitted and why, which tools are allowed, when it should be avoided and why, and the ramifications for violating the policy. If you need guidance, JournalistsResource.org highlights a study that identifies common traits in newsrooms’ AI policies. Poynter also has several resources, including its AI ethics starter kit, MediaWise AI literacy initiative and YouTube channel.)

I’ve collaborated with multiple student and professional journalists who’ve declared they don’t need an AI policy because they don’t use AI in their work. Saying when to not use AI is still the framework for a policy. If that’s your stance, write it down, explain why that’s the case and outline what happens if the policy isn’t followed. 

Authoring a policy also can be an opportunity for digging into your relationship with AI tools. I once assigned students to interview local media organizations about their AI usage. One group spoke to three journalists from a small digital outlet who said they never use AI. By the end of the conversation, the colleagues realized that they actually all were using AI in their journalism, and they were using it inconsistently – and that they needed to get aligned on when and when not to use it. 

Penning a policy can be an avenue for journalists, both students and professionals, to deepen their relationship with one another, as well. While this certainly doesn’t apply to all newsrooms of the aughts and 2010s, I do recall from my experiences back then some folks being hesitant to discuss what a social media policy could look like. I wonder if or how my newsroom’s culture, along with our ability to meet the moment for our audience, might have been different if all of us – not just the early adopters or young professionals – were encouraged to talk about our social media wishes and woes. Sure, those deliberations might have turned tense at times or exposed gaping digital knowledge gaps not immediately clear how to fill. 

But that’s the point. If journalists of all ages and stages in their careers are willing to be part of conversations like that, then it won’t be one generation’s job to have the answers. Instead, we can learn from each other and try to figure it out, together. 

Generative AI is journalism’s chance to try again.

Sara Bauknecht is a multimedia journalist, strategist and educator. She co-owns XSquared Media, an agency that blends traditional with new-media storytelling. Sara brings her industry background to Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as assistant professor of communication and student media adviser. At Chatham, Sara was a 2023-25 Technology Faculty Fellow exploring AI in media education. She deepened her work in this area as the 2025 visiting media scholar with the Yoder Institute for Ethics & Integrity in Journalism & Media.