When JaTasia Powers arrived at The Detroit News for her design internship, she expected the newsroom she’d seen countless times on television — reporters racing on deadlines, editors shouting across crowded desks, the hum of organized chaos.
Instead, she found something quieter.
“Because I only went into the office once a week and many people worked on a hybrid schedule, I rarely saw the newsroom completely full,” Powers said. “Even on days when almost everyone was in the office, it was never as hectic as I had imagined. It was a reminder of how much the journalism industry has evolved while still producing quality work every day.”
For Powers, who graduated from Michigan State University’s School of Journalism in 2025, the surprise wasn’t disappointment. It was confirmation that the profession she'd spent four years preparing for looked fundamentally different from the one many veteran journalists entered.
That reality is shaping journalism education across the country. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing newsroom workflows. Audiences increasingly consume news through social media, streaming and mobile devices rather than homepages. Local news organizations continue to grapple with economic pressure, while journalists are expected to produce across more formats than ever. According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, news executives identified generative AI as the single most significant force likely to reshape journalism in coming years, even as they wrestle with questions of ethics, transparency and trust.
At Michigan State, faculty say preparing students for that landscape isn’t about chasing every new technology; it’s about producing adaptable journalists whose reporting fundamentals hold steady as the profession evolves.
“It has been an exercise in being nimble,” said Geri Alumit Zeldes, Ph.D., tenured professor in the School of Journalism and associate dean of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs. “Our summers are spent updating our curriculum and updating our approaches.”
Nowhere is that balancing act more visible than around AI. Rather than banning the technology or embracing it unquestioningly, Zeldes believes journalism schools are obligated to teach students to use it responsibly. “The anxiety is real,” she said. “Students ask, ‘Is AI going to take my job? How am I going to use it ethically?’” Those questions mirror ones playing out in professional newsrooms.
Faculty are encouraged to be transparent about their own AI use and expectations for students, even as opinions among them range from enthusiastic to skeptical. “It’s important to state your positionality,” Zeldes said. “Students expect instructors to be honest about their use of AI, just as instructors expect students to be honest.” For Zeldes, human judgment remains the advantage machines can’t replicate: “AI can’t interview. It will not hold your hand when you’re building relationships.”
Yet she insists journalism’s core values haven’t budged. “I still fall back to persistence, curiosity and being able to write a clear sentence concisely,” she said. “Those are still the hallmarks of journalism.”
What has changed is the number of ways journalists must communicate. “Now you need to know how your story can appeal to various audiences,” she said. “The ability to speak fluently on TikTok and social media is different because newsrooms are now occupying different spaces.”
Michigan State’s response has been evolution, not reinvention. Jeremy W. Steele, associate director and academic specialist at the School of Journalism, says the school’s latest curriculum revisions are meant to deepen expertise while responding to industry demand. “I wouldn't characterize the proposed curriculum changes as a redesign,” he said. “The fundamental concepts are largely the same, but it’s streamlined.”
One major change converts the program’s concentrations into 15-credit minors, giving students more depth in their chosen specialty. The school is also investing where demand remains strongest. “Our largest journalism concentrations are sports and broadcast,” Steele said. “Media relations and reporting and editing also are strong.” As a Big Ten university, Michigan State offers extensive access to collegiate athletics coverage, and its broadcast program has drawn repeated recognition from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.
Digital storytelling, particularly documentary filmmaking, has emerged as another growth area. “Students are using these skills in film production as well as other video production careers,” Steele said.
For Zeldes, that expansion reflects journalism’s widening definition rather than a departure from its mission. Students today need to be prepared not just for newsrooms, but for freelance careers and entrepreneurial ventures. “We have a responsibility to teach entrepreneurial journalism,” she said. “There is so much work.” A recent Michigan State documentary graduate illustrated the point, returning to campus to lead workshops on building a freelance career and collaborating on a project with a current student.
Those relationships, Zeldes believes, illustrate how journalism education now prepares students to navigate an industry that keeps redefining itself.
Faculty are equally clear that classrooms alone can’t prepare students for a profession built on experience. Michigan State requires journalism majors to complete at least one internship for credit, though Steele said most complete several before graduating. This exposure is meant to introduce students to professional pace and expectations well before they graduate. “Journalism has long been a career where hands-on experience has given students an advantage in the job marketplace,” he said. “Students today are using the skills they learn in our classes in jobs from traditional newspapers to TV news, to sports communication, to social media management and more.”
Though for JaTasia Powers, it was the classroom itself, not just the internship, that proved the most authentic preparation. “The classes with the most hands-on assignments were the most beneficial in preparing me for my career,” she said.
She credits design professor Richard Epps with building an environment that mirrored a professional newsroom. “It felt less like a lecture and more like a team of designers working together to figure out the best way to communicate information visually. I always appreciated his classes because they taught me the importance of meeting deadlines, the creativity that comes from collaborating with others, and the value of being vulnerable enough to ask for help when I was stuck.”
Those lessons carried directly into her internship, where daily deadlines and teamwork became routine, including, she said, the same platform-agnostic, ethics-minded approach to AI she’d learned in class, and the discipline of designing for readers wherever they consume news rather than for one format.
That emphasis on experiential learning reflects a broader truth: technical skill alone is no longer enough. Employers increasingly expect graduates to arrive with portfolios showing versatility across platforms and comfort working in teams. The National Association of Colleges and Employers consistently ranks communication, critical thinking and problem-solving among the traits employers seek most, regardless of industry.
For Zeldes, that adaptability is the point. She believes journalism schools should prepare students for a profession that keeps changing rather than train them for one snapshot in time. “We’re seeing growth in our program,” she said, “especially in digital storytelling and this incredible interest in documentary filmmaking.” The school is streamlining its curriculum to make pathways more intuitive while giving students more depth. “We’re fashioning it to accommodate all of what’s going on in journalism,” she said. “Cleaner, clearer and more relevant to our students.”
Yet amid conversations about AI, social media and multimedia storytelling, Zeldes kept returning to something older: questions. “Our dean would always say the questions are more important than the statements,” she said. That mindset, she believes, distinguishes journalists from algorithms. Technology can organize information, summarize documents and spot patterns, but asking the right question, one no one else thought to ask, remains a deeply human skill.
It’s also one Powers believes her generation is uniquely prepared to bring to the profession. “One thing I wish editors and media executives understood is that a lot of young journalists are entering this profession excited to do meaningful work, but we’re also entering it with a lot of uncertainty,” she said. Her generation has watched local newspapers close, newsroom staffs shrink and ownership consolidate. According to Northwestern University’s “The State of Local News Project,” the U.S. continues to lose local news outlets at an alarming pace, leaving communities without consistent reporting and forcing remaining newsrooms to do more with less. “That can be intimidating when you’re just starting your career,” Powers said, “but it also motivates us to be adaptable, keep learning and find new ways to contribute to the future of journalism.” She hopes newsroom leaders recognize that resilience. “Young journalists want to learn, contribute and build long careers in this industry. Knowing that the people leading our newsrooms are committed to supporting and developing us makes a huge difference.”
That optimism resonates with Zeldes, who sees students energized rather than discouraged by journalism’s uncertainty. A recent conversation with the executive producer of a successful Netflix documentary reinforced her belief that journalism graduates possess skills extending well beyond traditional newsrooms. “They can write their ticket in documentary filmmaking right now,” she said. “They have story ideas. They have critical thinking and the ability to find and develop stories.”
Perhaps more importantly, she said, they know how to keep generating ideas when the first one doesn’t work. “Our students are endless story pitchers. They’re ready for the assignment desk meeting because they come to the table with all sorts of ideas.”
That creative persistence may prove to be journalism’s most enduring competitive advantage.
For Powers, that first impression of The Detroit News challenged the image of journalism she’d carried since childhood. The newsroom wasn’t louder or more frantic than she expected. It simply reflected a profession adapting to new technologies, new workplaces and new audience expectations. What remained unchanged was the work itself.
For Michigan State’s School of Journalism, preparing students for that future isn’t about predicting what tomorrow’s newsroom will look like. It’s about ensuring that, whatever form journalism takes next, its graduates will be ready to ask the questions that still matter most.
Taayoo Murray is a New York City-based journalist, who covers health, wellness and parenting. She is the founder of The Care Capitalist, which convenes off-the-record rooms to think through healthcare’s hardest questions. She welcomes emails at taayoo_murray@yahoo.com.
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