It’s Thursday, April 4.

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Good morning, readers. 

Like the internet before it, artificial intelligence, or AI, is upending the national media landscape and holds both opportunities and pitfalls for journalists practicing their craft. 

And at universities across the country, including at UNC, professors are grappling with how to teach journalism to students as AI offers powerful, useful tools that could assist reporters, on the one hand, but the potential to generate harmful content or spread misinformation on the other. 

At UNC’s Hussman School of Media and Journalism, professors see AI as one part of the continuum of technologies that have disrupted the profession over the years. 

“I think we [Hussman] can take a leadership position in the way AI is adopted,” says Hussman School dean Raul Reis. “We want to be part of the process of determining what is the future of the industry and how the industry is disrupted.” 

But Reis emphasizes that, no matter the scale of that disruption, the basic tenets of the industry and how they’re taught won’t change: critical thinking, data gathering, data processing, and determining truth remain crucial skills for journalists.

For our paper this week, writer Mike MacMillan takes a look at the emerging technology and its impact on the future of news reporting and spoke with journalists about how they see generative AI impacting their profession. 

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was—or simply replace it,” wrote one prominent media CEO in a recent memo to employees.

Across the world, journalists are counting on the former. 

Have a good Thursday.

—Jane

Durham

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is back and kicks off today. Here’s your guide to this year’s festival.  


And here are some previews and Q&As with the filmmakers behind Family Tree and Girls State, two documentaries that are screening at this year’s festival.

Wake

Here are three artists to see at Dreamville this weekend. 


Police officers shot a person outside of a Holly Springs Target store.

Orange

Chapel Hill has a new public library director, Atlas Logan.

North Carolina

A dearth of mental health services is spurring a capacity crisis in NC jails.

Today’s weather

Partly cloudy with a high of 62 degrees.

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