We’ve had a year to catastrophize AI’s impact on the future of journalism. While it hasn’t yet sent the workaday reporter the way of the oil lamplighter or the video store clerk, it has made a commodity out of good enough writing. ChatGPT is like the magic pot in the children’s book Strega Nona, and prompters are like Big Anthony — conjuring more summarization, analysis, and synthesis than anyone can read in a lifetime.
In this brave new world where content carbs abound, original reporting — investigative especially — becomes the sought-after protein. Certainly, we’ll see AI assist in big data analysis that can substantiate investigative claims — but where does the idea of an original story come from? The ability to attract tips, or to get a source to go on record or hand over documentation at their peril, takes emotional intelligence, credibility, skepticism, and discernment more than writing ability or production skills.
For any student who dreams of a career in media, or for any parent who dreads their kid wanting a career in news, don’t worry — there will be a public demand for news and people willing to pay for it; there will be job opportunities. But these jobs will go to the people who are distinguished by their three Rs: reputation, relationships, and realism. J-schools do a noble job teaching ethics, writing, fact-checking, and production, but the skills and traits essential to investigative reporting and other AI-proof skills take longer to develop than any degree program affords. Just as well, really; if you don’t have a six-figure 529 plan burning a hole in your pocket, such a degree is ill-advised, at least until interest rates retreat to the lows we enjoyed when my classmates and I signed our promissory notes.
So, if AI is indeed a white-collar job eater, then an ancient blue-collar convention might be in order. The trade apprenticeship, where early-career entrants become paid employees, allows learning on the job through formal training with master reporters who can model how to piece together original investigative work over months or even years. Apprentices would see how to nurture a network of valuable sources, how tips can be vetted or dismissed, how to respond when your work is challenged or even attacked. This type of experience will be prized in the future, and it can’t be earned in a classroom.
To be sure, journalism apprenticeships used to occur informally. Less than a century ago, news assistants came fresh out of high school (some without diplomas). Once the vocation took on an air of professionalism, internships became the bridge between j-school and paid reporting jobs. But they’re a gamble now. As Ryan Craig explains in his new book Apprentice Nation: How the “Earn and Learn” Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America, an intern is the inverse of an apprentice. An intern is a student first, on a weeks-long professional field trip. Even when paid, internships favor the rich since interns still incur tuition bills while interning. Many are merely resume burnishers that involve no meaningful training. In contrast, apprentices are employees first who bypass academia and receive formal instruction at work. It’s a fairer way to build a pipeline of trained professionals for the field.
The idea that media companies would carry entry-level employees on the payroll for a couple years, waiting patiently for them to become fully productive and absorbing the instructional responsibilities once assumed by universities just after they’ve spent a year laying off thousands of seasoned professionals? I get it: This sounds less like a well-reasoned prediction than a fever dream. But our patron saints of the press (Knight, MacArthur, Newmark, and their peers) certainly see that AI is changing the skillset required for the type of journalism our future demands. No doubt they are observing, along with the rest of us, how quickly university degree programs are coming to seem like an unsustainable proposition for most young people. My crystal ball says they’ll put their dollars to work — not into scholarships or internships, but straight to the workplace, sponsoring apprentice programs where our future colleagues will develop experience that won’t be so readily automated into obsolescence.
Jennifer Coogan is chief content officer of Newsela.
