Reimagining student news media: A transdisciplinary experiment of AI-powered financial journalism practicum

Research has shown the importance of incorporating AI into journalism education to equip students for the evolving media industry (Pavlik, 2023). However, a study based on interviews with journalism programme leaders found that journalism educators are still quite cautious about incorporating AI, and a culture of innovation for teachers and students to experiment with AI tools should be encouraged (Wenger et al., 2024). Contemporary scholarship recognizes that not all journalistic tasks suit AI automation. The future of journalism will be human-AI collaboration (Serdouk & Bessam, 2023). Finding the optimal match between AI and humans in journalism is an urgent research area for education and industry. This presentation will be about how San Po Yan Finance and The Young Financial Post, two financial journalism practicums, experimented with both general-purpose and domain-specific AI tools in their news production workflow over the past year. As a transdisciplinary field, financial journalism requires students to master both financial knowledge and journalistic skills. The subject requires numerical precision and interpretation of industry jargon, which makes the learning curve particularly steep. AI tools helped students to overcome these challenges. AI was applied in different types of reporting, including data-intensive long-form stories and time-sensitive spot news coverage of current events. The presentation will discuss tasks suitable for AI delegation within the newsroom workflow. Our practicum emphasized student reflection as a critical component of the learning experience and addressed ethical considerations of AI use. These insights should be helpful for other school media outlets and journalism courses.