Generative AI: Creativity and Critical Thinking in Journalism
Project Overview
Newsrooms and public relations professionals are reckoning with what role AI tools -- particularly Generative AI -- could and/or should play in their workflows. As a faculty member who typically teaches courses with an applied approach, it’s become increasingly common to field the following types of student questions:
* Will AI replace journalists?
* How are PR professionals using AI?
* Is Generative AI all bad?
* What exactly am I supposed to do with Generative AI?
As a professional media practitioner, my teaching philosophy is to strive to build bridges between the media industry and the classroom so students can recognize and understand how/why the skills and concepts we cover in a course are at play in communications-related professions. Therefore, to help equip students for potentially pursuing careers in media (and, in general, to be thoughtful and critical consumers of media), I used this project as an opportunity to update the curriculum to incorporate AI in two courses: COM251: News Writing & Editing (a foundational journalism course) and COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication (a professional development course that explores communications career paths, along with client work).
I used Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (2001) as a framework to develop this project.
III. Project Implementation
In COM251: News Writing & Editing, students completed multiple in-class exercises that tasked them with A.) engineering prompts, B.) using ChatGPT 3.5 to generate different types of story headlines, and C.) using ChatGPT 3.5 to generate and critique news briefs.
The goal of these exercises was to not only help students understand how to write and revise prompts to generate the intended results and use basic Generative AI tools but also to apply the basics of journalistic story structure and style to critique AI-generated content. After using ChatGPT 3.5 to generate a news brief on a specified topic, students were asked to respond to the following questions:
What were the strengths of the brief?
What needed to be improved/corrected in it?
What information was missing (if any)?
What role did diversity and inclusion play in the brief (if any)?
After answering these questions on their own, students paired up in class to discuss their respective responses. The takeaways from their conversations in pairs were then shared in a class-wide discussion.
In COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication, a similar assignment was developed and implemented. It included the following:
Write a prompt for ChatGPT 3.5 to get it to write a press release. (NOTE: Students were assigned a specific topic and goal to make the focus of their prompts and press releases.)
Based on the press release draft that a Generative AI platform created, write a critique about it. The critique should address the strengths of the press release and its opportunities for improvement. Students also were instructed to reflect on how they think Generative AI could (and/or could not) be helpful to PR professionals, based on their experiences working with it for this assignment.
Based on their critiques, students had to revise the AI-generated press release on their own and explain why they made those changes to it.
Beyond this Generative AI assignment, COM314 students learned how other AI tools could help them sharpen their presentation skills, which are essential for PR professionals when pitching to prospective and current clients and/or on behalf of a client to a target audience. For another assignment, students were required to use PowerPoint’s Speaker Coach to help them prepare for their final project presentations.
Speaker Coach provides feedback on timing, pacing, filler words (e.g., “like,” “um,” “uh,” etc.), culturally sensitive terms, lengthy pauses, and repetitive words/phrases. Its suggestions are shared with a user in a report after a presentation is completed; there’s also the option to receive real-time feedback via a pop-up window in the corner of the presentation while the PowerPoint slides are on the screen.
Students were assigned the following:
Practice the final presentation with PowerPoint’s Speaker Coach on.
After practicing with Speaker Coach, review the feedback and practice the presentation at least one more time with Speaker Coach turned on – with the intent of striving to apply some of the suggestions from the report.
Reflect on the feedback from Speaker Coach and how it helped with preparation for the final presentation. Some points to consider in a written reflection are: Was there any feedback shared that surprised you? Was there anything new learned about your presentation style based on your use of this tool? How did you adapt your presentation delivery based on the feedback you received? Is this a tool you plan to use again in the future? Why, or why not?
Along with the written reflection, submit the feedback reports generated by Speaker Coach.
IV. Project Assessment
Projects were assessed informally and formally. From a personal, informal point of view, I was pleased with how these assignments in both courses offered ample opportunities for meaningful in-class discussions about AI, including what it is, what it isn’t, how to use it ethically (by considering industry codes of ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Public Relations Society of America), the strengths and weaknesses of Generative AI, and how AI tools are being incorporated into professional media settings.
Additionally, these assignments provided another way for students to sharpen their critical thinking skills and to apply course concepts related to journalistic and PR writing. For example, in COM251: News Writing & Editing, answering the question about how diversity and inclusion was/was not present in the AI-generated news brief prompted students to not only identify ChatGPT 3.5’s strengths and weaknesses in this area but also then to explain what they would do as journalists to make the news brief more mindful of diversity and inclusion in its points of view and word choices. Similarly, in COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication, the content generated by AI challenged students to apply course concepts to it to critique it and then to be able to improve it. (In other words, if students’ handle on PR writing skills, including structure and Associated Press style, was lacking, these opportunities for growth would be illuminated for them and for me as the instructor from this assignment.)
This was a refreshing observation that Generative AI tools – which often are condemned for their shortcomings, biases, and potential to hallucinate – can be used in ways that help to foster critical thinking and skills application.
Regarding the use of the PowerPoint Speaker Coach, I observed marked improvements in students’ end-of-term presentations – most noticeably that all students kept their presentations within the allotted time limits (which had not happened previously in the course). While, of course, other factors could have contributed to this, it’s plausible that the Speaker Coach’s timing tool was one of them. Formally, students were surveyed about how these assignments impacted their understanding of Generative AI. Some of the findings included:
COM251: News Writing & Editing
How often do you intentionally use Generative AI?
After completing the Generative AI in Journalism in-class exercise in COM251, I describe my understanding of Generative AI as ...
The in-class exercise helped me with the following (check all that apply):
Students also were asked to share if the in-class exercise affected their views of Generative AI in journalism. Some of their responses were:
“I'm less worried about it taking jobs since it seems to require some non-insignificant hand-holding and monitoring to get it to produce something usable.”
“ … I see it as more of a tool rather than a replacement.”
“I still have concerns, but now I have a little bit more clarity. While people can misuse AI, it can also be used as a helpful tool for writing.”
COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication
How often do you intentionally use Generative AI?
Prior to the discussion of Generative AI in COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication, how would you describe your degree of knowledge of Generative AI and platforms like ChatGPT?
After completing the Generative AI in Strategic Communication in-class discussions and take-home assessment in COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication, I describe my understanding of Generative AI as ...
Our work with Generative AI in COM314: Careers in Strategic Communication helped me with the following (check all that apply) ...
Prior to our work with Generative AI in this course, did you have any concerns regarding Generative AI? If so, please explain below.
“Bias”
“Concerns about job prospects.”
“No real concerns but questions as to how it can be used in class settings and when it could be considered cheating or using it and going too far with it when doing research.”
“Yes, I didn't know very much about Generative AI and so a lot of what I was hearing was more of other people’s concerns about what Generative AI would mean for jobs and also for people's privacy and authority or ownership of digital work.”
“I had concerns about Generative AI taking media-related jobs, specifically those involving writing, because I thought AI tools were capable of writing high-quality press releases.”
After our work with Generative AI in this course, did your concerns about Generative AI change? If so, please explain below.
“less concerned”
“I was able to see how you can use AI in a constructive way to assist you in your work but not completely write it for you.”
“I still feel as if AI limits creativity, but I do feel that it sometimes helps to jumpstart creative ideas as well.”
“Yes, I was not aware of how much AI was able to provide. From using it in this course I realized that AI is not always correct, and it could provide false information if applying it to other work.”
“Yes, my concerns lessened after doing this project because I gained an understanding of the flaws of Generative AI in developing press releases through generating my own, looking at examples, and our in-class discussions where we analyzed the areas for improvement.”
V. Project Reflections and Next Steps
I learned from these projects that many students have some of the same questions and concerns that faculty members have, and, as educators, we should not assume that students are up to date on the latest AI tools and how to use them. (I had some students tell me after class that these courses were the first time they had used Chat GPT.)
Another key takeaway from this project is that students need support with learning that Generative AI is not a binary (i.e., it’s not all good, nor is it all bad). Based on the quantitative and qualitative feedback received from students, a strength of these projects was that it provided students with a way to observe and assess the spectrum of Generative AI’s uses, along with its opportunities and shortcomings in respect to journalistic and PR writing and editing. I also am excited about the possibilities of free Generative AI tools to be ways for media students to practice critiquing and revising story structure and Associated Press style, fact checking, and cultivating an eye for biases.
As part of their surveys, students also shared feedback about what they’d like to learn about AI tools and Generative AI in the future. Those responses will help to inform how these assignments are revised for future terms.
Personally, through my own professional work this past academic year, I’ve become interested in how AI tools can be used to help students who are new to interviewing and/or experience social anxiety practice these skills prior to conducting journalistic interviews “in real life.” Additionally, I’m intrigued by how prompt engineering could potentially be a way for student editors to develop their story assigning and feedback skills. These are areas I plan to explore in future journalism and public relations courses.