Preserving Your Voice in The Age of AI

As AI use spreads across newsrooms and audiences increasingly get their news online, educators and journalists alike say they are emphasizing ethics and other key reporting skills to empower students to find their own unique voices. 

“Being a strong writer is critical because it’s about being a good storyteller,” said Patel Liss. “Whether you’re producing stories for social media, or you’re producing stories for videos or audio or podcasts or digital text stories, you will need to be a great storyteller.”

According to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism Report, 82% of journalists report using at least one AI tool. AI is changing several industries, and regardless of the industry, workers of the future will need to be critical thinkers, Patel Liss said. 

AI can make some journalistic work more efficient, Patel Liss said but will never take from the human side of the work, such as interviewing, building trust and translating public records. 

Journalist and educator Eduard Cauich, lecturer at Cal State Northridge and a bilingual reporter for the L.A. Times, said he understands why some educators are hesitant to allow AI; he thinks it is a mistake to not allow students to learn how to use the tools in the classroom. 

Cauich allows students to use transcription, spelling and translation tools, such as Otter AI and Grammarly he said, but emphasizes the need to edit critically and fact check their work. 

Although AI produces “decent” writing that “does the job” he said its growing presence makes it more important for journalists to develop a distinct voice. He describes a writer’s style as a “unique fingerprint” that can fade when AI use becomes too prevalent.

Patel Liss also encourages students to develop their voice through in class writing assignments and feedback on their first drafts. 

While students are generally banned from using AI in her classes, she said she allows them to experiment with it to improve their initial work, brainstorm ideas, or develop headlines and outlines in class, but students must disclose any AI use in any published work as transparency is another key component of journalism.  

For Cauich and Patel Liss alike, ethics are more important than ever. 

“It’s a very risky tool because you can become very dependent on it,” said Cauich. “It’s part of our task and responsibilities as professors to give some limitations on the use of AI. Once they graduate they will hopefully know the fundamentals of ethics, and I think that’s the most important part of journalism school.”

Emerging journalists are just as concerned as their teachers.

“Developing one’s own craft as a journalism student is essential,” said Desmond Bracken, journalist and 2026 CPF internship grant recipient. “I’m not gonna say there’s no place for artificial intelligence tools in reporting, but you have to have a strong enough grasp on writing and how to interpret facts on your own for those tools to be useful.”

Bracken saw the evolution of AI usage as they were moving from a student journalist to working in a professional newsroom. Students must first learn how to trust themselves as reporters before outsourcing some of their work to AI, said Bracken. 

Bracken said if a student doesn’t develop the sense of reporting independently, they risk crossing a line before they even know what the line truly is. 

The best way for students to develop their voices is to be open to making mistakes, Bracken said. 

“They want to seem like they’ve done their research but they don’t necessarily know what that looks like yet,” said Bracken.

For support, Bracken encouraged students to seek out mentors and peers they respect.

“That’s something an automated tool is never going to be able to do for you is help you push past those anxieties and stand on your own two feet,” Bracken said. “It takes practice and being vulnerable and being afraid is not a bad thing.”

JOUR•Ed Voices