Bailey Vergara, a sophomore double-majoring in JMC and screenwriting, presented an original research project at the university’s 2025 Fall Undergraduate Research Festival (FURF). 

Vergara—a sports broadcaster for HawkVision and writer for KRUI—spent the past year collaborating on an undergraduate research project with SJMC Assistant Professor Bingbing Zhang. Their project is centered around how student journalists feel about generative AI use in the newsroom. 

Vergara said she has been interested in studying generative AI’s impact on the journalistic landscape since her first semester at the university. However, she began looking into conducting official research during her second semester after taking Introduction to Media Effects with Zhang. 

“...one day, I came up to her (Zhang) and asked, ‘Do you know of anywhere I could potentially do some research about AI in journalism?’” Vergara said. “She flat out offered, ‘Do you want to do a project with me?’ I said yes, and since then we’ve designed this study from the ground up.” 

Upon conducting literature reviews in preparation for their own study, Vergara and Zhang noted that most research has centered around how professional journalists perceive generative AI in news construction. However, they were unable to find articles that solely focused on student journalists’ beliefs, meaning their piece will offer unique contributions to the field. 

“We decided to go with student journalists because we have a huge base of Daily Iowan, DITV…so in the summer [and early fall], we conducted 20 student journalist interviews…” Zhang said. 

Another reason Vergara and Zhang chose this focus is because this generation of student journalists will be in charge of shaping the future of the field; that is, perceptions about generative AI in the newsroom are likely to change. 

Zhang noted that in preparation for FURF, she and Vergara conducted a preliminary data analysis to identify key findings to present on a poster. At this point in the process, they are conducting a more in-depth qualitative analysis and working to form a manuscript; that of which they are aiming to have submitted to an academic journal and conference. 

During FURF, Vergara—who was a summer Independent Creative Research by Undergraduates fellow—had the opportunity to present her findings and answer questions from visitors. 

“I had a couple of people come up to me, and they asked me about my project,” she said. “I wanted to keep it conversational. I wanted to keep the language accessible to everyone…and it seemed like that method of communication worked with a lot of people.” 

Reflecting back on the preliminary data analysis and presentation, Zhang said she was a bit surprised at one of their biggest findings. 

“Student journalists…they are pretty skeptical and critical of using Gen-AI in their work,” she said. “Some of the interviewees have mentioned that ‘I would not directly take what Gen-AI produced, and then I will double-check, fact-check everything, because I’m a journalist. I feel the responsibility of spreading [accurate] information.’” 

After expressing her amazement of SJMC students’ professionalism and consideration of AI ethical concerns, she provided insight into their second major research finding: Student journalists understand that generative AI is here to stay. Therefore, it is worth learning how to use this resource responsibly and ethically. 

“There are two groups of students,” Zhang said. “One group is actually completely pushing back, like ‘I’m not going to use Gen-AI in my work, I see my own writing as more human’…and then there’s also a group of students [who] are exploring how to better use Gen-AI to help their work.” 

In line with Zhang’s observations, Vergara noted that journalism students tend to avoid using generative AI to produce work, as this may pose accuracy and plagiarism concerns. 

“What I learned is most student journalists don’t use generative AI for their journalism work specifically, and from what their responses told me, I mainly attribute that to a sense of personal pride in their work,” she said. 

Although Vergara and Zhang both arrived at the conclusion that student journalists tend to be opposed to AI generating actual news content, they noted that it can be used as a helpful tool. 

“...the journalists that do use generative AI to assist in their journalistic work typically don’t use it for writing,” Vergara said. “They’ll use it maybe to help edit, maybe to help come up with ideas, to do transcriptions, things like that, but it feels like that’s kind of the line in the sand that many journalists have drawn…”  

Looking ahead to the future of journalism, Dr. Zhang and Vergara both acknowledged that AI is likely here to stay; that is, especially considering it is not emerging journalists alone who shape perspectives about Gen-AI. Rather, these views and practices are influenced by existing journalists, policymakers, influencers, news audiences, educators, news corporations, etc. 

“...there’s a chance that [in] the future, to me, I think [there’s] a pretty good chance that higher-ups will ask for more AI integration without really knowing the practical implications of that,” Vergara said. 

Vergara mentioned that as a result of these differing perspectives, this generation of emerging journalists is likely to push back against AI integration. Zhang stated that for journalists to be more open to letting Gen-AI stick around, newsrooms will need to begin establishing ethical guidelines and best practices. 

“...our objectivity, our accountability, and our integrity…I think the original ethics code that journalists share, like even before Gen-AI was in the picture, we should still hold onto it,” Zhang said. She also believes transparency, impartiality and accuracy should be included in these guidelines. 

Agreeing with Zhang, Vergara emphasized that regardless of what extent generative AI is used in journalism, emerging and professional journalists alike must ensure they do not lose their voices. 

“I feel like [journalists should] just ensure that the end product is controlled by [them], like trying to use it in non-transformative ways, as opposed to actually just copy and pasting writing…” she said. “...I would say that’s the main ethical consideration: To keep that principle of truth in mind and to not let AI cloud that in any way.” 

Wrapping up her discussion about major findings, Zhang emphasized her pride in Vergara’s work and her joy from collaborating on this project together. She also encourages other undergraduate students interested in research to get involved. 

“...I also see this as a great opportunity for all the undergraduate students to grow if they’re really interested in research, because they get to participate in different stages of the research [process]...” she said. 

For more information about how to get involved and gain similar research opportunities, visit our research webpage. Students may also use research experience to fulfill their SCRIPT requirement.