This study analyses undergraduate data journalism education in Spain, aiming to identify competences, tools, and pedagogical challenges. Drawing on a content analysis of 106 degree curricula from the 2025/2026 academic year and a questionnaire answered by 75% of Data Journalism lecturers in Spain ( n = 9), it reveals a quantitative expansion of the discipline, with 16 universities currently offering a dedicated module with a tool-oriented approach. The most used tools are accessible and have a low technical threshold, whereas programming, statistical software, and artificial intelligence remain incipient. Although data journalism is consolidating, its development remains introductory, constrained by structural limitations and continuous updating.
Around the world, mental well-being education remains largely absent from journalism curricula. This is especially relevant considering young reporters are routinely assigned to cover tragic or violent events early in their careers without receiving meaningful instruction in trauma-informed practices. This syndicate discussed the lack of trauma literacy in journalism schools and how educators can effectively teach mental well-being in their classes. Participants noted the need to prepare future journalists to face the stressors of the field, enable students to become effective leaders, and that educators need more training on how to incorporate mental well-being into their curricula, including how to address daily stressors such as burnout and secondary trauma, and not just post-traumatic stress disorder from large traumatic events. In addition, participants suggested that journalism schools and practicing journalists collaborate to bring more trauma literacy to the classroom, helping students be aware of the risks that come with the profession.
This pilot study evaluates an innovative news literacy intervention combining a short-term newsroom internship with an online news literacy platform designed for French ninth-grade students completing such internships. Using a pretest/posttest design with 121 participants, we examined changes in motivation, knowledge, critical questioning, and engagement with news, and assessed socioeconomic disparities in these changes. Results show significant gains in knowledge of news production and in self-reported critical questioning. Initial knowledge gaps linked to socioeconomic background disappeared post intervention. Findings suggest that combining a short newsroom internship with interactive formats can foster equitable news literacy development and support civic education among adolescents.
Given that the media can influence the public’s perception of health risk, journalists play a vital role in health risk communication. Numeracy and statistical literacy are important skills for this communication, yet research shows some journalism students lack these skills, a pattern also evident in broader journalism practice that limits critical engagement with contested statistical information. Drawing on self-efficacy theory, this study aimed to improve journalism students’ statistical literacy and numeric confidence through a short education intervention. Using a before-and-after study design, findings indicate some improvements in these skills, supported by qualitative feedback. Overall, the findings may guide pedagogical approaches that enhance responsible health reporting and self-efficacy in these areas.
Economic pressures on journalism have prompted calls for journalism education to address business concepts and skills. This study seeks understanding of scholastic journalism advisers’ perceptions of business education. Findings from 29 interviews reveal that although advisers have not systematically incorporated business education, student media funding requires engagement in sales, budgeting, fundraising, and entrepreneurship. Findings also point to an opportunity to improve the integration of business principles in scholastic journalism.
This study examines how journalism educators can integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into curricula while preserving the human capacities that define the craft. Drawing on 15 interviews with international scholars and practitioners, this research employs a human–computer interaction framework to analyze where AI effectively augments journalistic work and where it undermines creativity, ethics, and judgment. Findings suggest that AI is best positioned as a catalyst for efficiency, background research, and templated work, not as a creative substitute. The study proposes practical pedagogical tools, including a specific rubric that assesses four irreplaceable characteristics: curiosity, emotion, cultural perspective, and originality.
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in journalism, educators face the challenge of determining its place in undergraduate instruction. This study analyzes undergraduate journalism syllabi ( N = 60) from ACEJMC-accredited programs to examine how AI is framed across writing, production, visual/data, and ethics courses. Guided by a constructionist framing perspective, a qualitative content analysis identified three patterns: AI as a threat to learning and professional standards, AI as a tool permitted under strict boundaries, and AI as a subject of ethical and professional inquiry. Findings reveal uneven approaches shaped by instructor discretion, underscoring the need for coherent curricular strategies.
As artificial intelligence chatbots enter journalism education, instructors are making choices about whether to allow their use. One perspective that may help them make this decision comes from considering the importance of perceptions of self-efficacy in learning and motivation. Through interviews conducted with journalism students who have been instructed in the use of AI for specific journalism tasks, this study explores how students perceive AI’s impact on their education and their sense of self-efficacy, providing evidence that using AI in journalism education can put barriers between students and the performance accomplishments they need to build confidence.
This study analyzes doctoral education trends in journalism and mass communications. Dissertation abstracts ( N = 643) from ACEJMC-accredited schools from 2019 to 2024 were coded; popular topics included underrepresented communities, social media, and health, and popular methods included qualitative interviews. Job postings ( N = 1,067) shared through AEJMC from 2021 to 2024 were also coded; most did not require specific research concentrations or methods, but they explicitly required teaching and professional experience. Implications for graduate students, mentors, and program directors are discussed.
This study examines whether mass communication students share common media experiences, given the increasing fragmentation of media consumption. A survey of 234 students across five universities assessed preferences in television, film, books, music, and video games. Findings reveal limited shared media experiences, with video games offering the most commonality. The results underscore the need for mass communication instructors to adapt pedagogy to evolving media habits.
Teaching media literacy today means navigating technological change, contested definitions of the field, and engaging students amid constant digital distractions. Such challenges motivated a case study of an undergraduate media literacy course designed using Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The study drew on a survey, focus groups, and reflections to examine students’ experiences and perceptions of the course’s value. Although students entered with substantial lived media experience, they lacked formal terminology and prior institutional training. Students responded positively to the course’s validation of existing knowledge and emphasis on peer discussion. Postcourse reflections showed movement toward deliberate critique and strengthened personal agency.
The integration of generative AI into advertising education raises questions about its impact on creative learning. Guided by Amabile’s componential theory, this mixed-methods study compares human–AI and human–human collaboration in ideation tasks completed by 64 undergraduates. AI collaboration increased ideational efficiency but was associated with lower reported cognitive engagement and creative ownership; students viewed AI-generated ideas as more original yet less relevant. Preference for AI collaboration was predicted by perceived creativity during the task rather than baseline creative confidence. These findings suggest that structured sequencing and framing of AI use are critical for sustaining creative agency in advertising coursework.
This study examines how journalism programs in eight Global South countries integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their curricula amid infrastructural and policy challenges. Analyzing syllabi and national AI policies, it finds that AI is taught as a practical tool embedded in digital and data workflows. Ethics is framed as risk management, addressing misinformation, bias, and surveillance. However, instruction operates under significant infrastructure constraints, including limited connectivity and access to tools. Overall, AI education in these contexts is pragmatic and locally grounded, adapting global technological trends to fit material realities, professional norms, and uneven governance systems.
This study critically examines the impact of a “Films and Society” course in a multidisciplinary Indian university, addressing the gap in empirical evaluation of film-based pedagogy. Using survey data from 554 undergraduates and exploratory factor analysis, five dimensions of engagement were identified. Regression revealed that Academic & Skill Relevance was the strongest predictor of perceived learning (β > .64, p < .001), with societal/aesthetic and cognitive realism dimensions also positively associated, though socio-emotional and logical–technical orientations had mixed or modest effects. While the findings align with the NEP 2020 goals for holistic education, the limitations of the qualitative approach, representativeness and cross-sectional design constrain the conclusions. These results invite further exploration of film pedagogy across institutional contexts and encourage the consideration of non-cognitive outcomes and long-term impacts.
This case study evaluates Crosby Kids (CK), a private LinkedIn-based mentorship community that links journalism students at a historically Black university with alumni professionals. Grounded in Social Identity Theory, it examines engagement, perceived value, and career outcomes. Survey and qualitative data were analyzed using dual AI platforms under human supervision to enhance transparency. Findings show sustained engagement through active participation and strategic observation. Among internship students who completed structured professional development before joining CK, 40% reported securing a job or internship. Results suggest LinkedIn can support professional identity development and career readiness in a scalable mentorship environment.
Empathy is an under-researched yet vital communication skill. This mixed-methods study examined undergraduate communication students’ understanding of empathy in education and work. Using a survey to measure empathy levels and interviews to examine students’ understanding, the results demonstrated that students were generally empathetic, although men scored lower. Most defined empathy with either cognitive or affective components, rarely both, and described its value for relationships and communication careers, especially in understanding audiences, but noted risks like burnout. These findings give educators a starting point for understanding students’ empathy, and gaps in understanding demonstrate a need to integrate empathy into curricula.
UNESCO’s 2023/24 “Promoting excellence in journalism education in Africa” initiative saw journalism educators from every region of the continent define factors that contribute to and challenge excellence in journalism education. Through a two-phased process, the development of criteria for excellence, self-evaluation, and self-correcting project proposals were made by 53 journalism schools. Ten projects were selected and funded to address identified gaps. Selected projects focused on areas like data journalism, gender, and media sustainability. This paper provides an overview and analysis of the criteria participants used to define excellence and reports on trends in journalism education and training in Africa.
This study explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming journalism schools (J-schools) in the Global South, focusing on Bangladesh, offering both opportunities and challenges. Guided by the framework of disruptive innovation, it employs qualitative methods and data triangulation through interviews with 12 educators and focus group discussions with 9 undergraduate media students. Findings reveal a divide among educators and a gap between teachers and students regarding AI guidelines. The study recommends embedding AI through convergence into existing courses, adapting participatory and hybrid learning approaches, developing a contextualized and collaborative Global South model, and embracing an ethical grounding as a living framework for responsible and meaningful AI integration.
