77th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION. 3-7 June 2027, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Abstract:
Student media serve as vital journalistic microcosms (Vollstädt, 2026) – and they are incubators for emerging communicators, laboratories for media production (Voigt, 2022; Lance & Reynolds, 2021), and spaces where future journalists develop not only technical skills (Hopp, 2013) but also ethical frameworks (Alaqabawy, 2026), professional identities (Nygren & Stigbrand, 2014), critical understandings of journalism and media systems as well as an understanding of journalism’s role in civic life (Hobbs, 2016; Schofield & Monserrate, 2011).
Student media simulate professional work environments, enabling students to develop institutional behaviors and practice skills commonly required in the field (Schwartz, 2019; Fromm, 2019; Bowen, 2019). The term includes all forms of media as well as the practice of crossing several media forms in one outlet. They take place in elementary, secondary and tertiary education environments (Silvia & Kaplan, 1998).
In an era defined by fragmentation of the public sphere, algorithmic curation, artificial intelligence reshaping communication processes (Bruns, 2019; Costera Meijer, 2022; Diakopoulos et al., 2024, Thurman et al., 2025), and crisis of the digital public sphere (Dodds et al., 2026; Simon, 2022; Habermas, 2022), these secondary and tertiary educational environments are valuable spaces for developing media and information literacy (MIL). The learning environment of student media is more crucial than ever in shaping resilient and media competent citizens that are able to navigate the challenging and evolving media landscapes (Bobkowski & Miller, 2016; Wenger et al., 2025).
However, student media should not be regarded as a panacea capable of addressing all existing gaps and emerging challenges in journalism (Ferrucci, 2018; Finnemann et al., 2024). The implementation of student media also entails significant challenges, including an overwhelming workload, discrepancies between educators’ skills and the competencies expected by the industry, and tensions between the relatively slow pace of change in educational environments and the rapid development of the media industry. These structural and professional mismatches may contribute to frustration among both educators and students.
This pre-structured ICA panel seeks to explore how student media are adapting to and resisting the pressures of technological disruption, particularly the rise of AI in role development, content creation, and content distribution; how student media can serve not only as training grounds but as sites of resilience, innovation, and MIL in dramatically changing media landscapes; how students and instructors navigate the tension between efficiency and authenticity, automation and authorship.
We welcome conceptual and empirical contributions that examine student media across secondary and tertiary education contexts, with a focus on: 2
the ethical, pedagogical, and epistemic challenges posed by AI
improving and developing critical engagement of students and young adults through media and information literacies and practices
the shaping of professional identity among amid uncertainty about the future of media work
global and comparative perspectives on how different regions navigate challenges in journalism education and building critical citizenship in the age of AI
Submission Guidelines
We invite presentation proposals that contribute to this coherent thematic panel. Each submission should include:
presentation title
author(s) and institutional affiliation(s)
abstract (250–300 words) that clearly connects to the panel theme and addresses one or more of the above questions
Submissions should be sent to Charmaine Voigt (charmaine.voigt@uni-rostock.de) and Susanne Vollstädt (susanne.vollstaedt@uni-mainz.de) by 15 October 2026.
References
Alaqabawy, N. (2026). Navigating Journalistic Values in Student-Run Media’s Organizational Culture. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 81(1), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958251381558
Bobkowski, P. S., & Miller, P. R. (2016). Civic Implications of Secondary School Journalism: Associations With Voting Propensity and Community Volunteering. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(3), 530–550. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699016628821
Bowen, C. P. (2019). Secondary School and Scholastic Journalism. In T. P. Vos, F. Hanusch, D. Dimitrakopoulou, M. Geertsema-Sligh, & A. Sehl (Hrsg.), The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (1. Aufl., S. 1–5). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0010
Bruns, A. (2019). Filter bubble. Internet Policy Review, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.14763/2019.4.1426
Costera Meijer, I. (2022). What is Valuable Journalism? Three Key Experiences and Their Challenges for Journalism Scholars and Practitioners*. Digital Journalism, 10(2), 230–252.
Diakopoulos, N., Cools, H., Li, C., Helberger, N., Kung, E., Rinehart, A., & Gibbs, L. (2024). Generative AI in Journalism: The Evolution of Newswork and Ethics in a Generative Information Ecosystem. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.31540.05765
Dodds, T., Zamith, R., & Lewis, S. C. (2026). The AI turn in journalism: Disruption, adaptation, and democratic futures. Journalism, 27(3), 530–544. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849251343518
Ferrucci P. (2018). “We’ve lost the basics”: Perceptions of journalism education from veterans in the field. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 73(4), 410–420.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077695817731870 3
Finneman, T., Heckman, M., & Wolgast, S. (2024). Examining Gaps in Journalism Curriculum to Solve the News Desert Crisis. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 79(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958231212538
Fromm, M. (2019). Student Press. In R. Hobbs & P. Mihailidis (Hrsg.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy (1. Aufl., S. 1–8). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118978238.ieml0229
Habermas, J. (2022). A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics. Suhrkamp.
Hobbs, R. (2016). When teens create the news: Examining the impact of PBS News Hour Student Reporting Labs. Journalism Education, 5(1), 61–73.
Hopp, T. M. (2013). Subjective Norms as a Driver of Mass Communication Students’ Intentions to Adopt New Media Production Technologies. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 68(4), 348–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077695813506993
Lance, Z. L., & Reynolds, C. J. (2021). “Going Virtual Helped Me Learn That I Can Handle Everything”: Campus Magazine Production as a High Impact Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 76(4), 448–468. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958211023254
Nygren, G., & Stigbrand, K. (2014). The Formation of a Professional Identity: Journalism students in different media systems. Journalism Studies, 15(6), 841–858. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2013.834163
Schofield Clark, L., & Monserrate, R. (2011). High school journalism and the making of young citizens. Journalism, 12(4), 417–432. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884910388225
Schwartz, D. (2019). College and University Student Media. In T. P. Vos, F. Hanusch, D. Dimitrakopoulou, M. Geertsema-Sligh, & A. Sehl (Hrsg.), The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (1. Aufl., S. 1–6). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0007
Silvia, T., & Kaplan, N. F. (1998). Student television in America: Channels of change. Iowa State University Press.
Simon, F. M. (2022). Uneasy Bedfellows: AI in the News, Platform Companies and the Issue of Journalistic Autonomy. Digital Journalism, 10(10), 1832–1854. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2063150
Thurman, N., Thäsler-Kordonouri, S., & Fletcher, R. (2025). AI adoption by UK journalists and their newsrooms: Surveying applications, approaches, and attitudes. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://doi.org/10.60625/RISJ-EA11-Q402
Voigt, C. (2022). College Television: Practical Media Training in US and German Higher Education. GESIS-Schriftenreihe, 30, 275 S. https://doi.org/10.21241/SSOAR.93837
Vollstädt, S. (2026). Online-Schülerzeitungen: Anspruch, Nutzung und Qualität der digitalen Schülerpresse – Eine triangulative Studie [Online School Newspapers: Aspirations, Use, and Quality of the Digital Student Press—A Triangulative Study]. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-51451-8
Wenger, D., Hossain, M. S., & Senseman, J. R. (2025). AI and the Impact on Journalism Education. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 80(1), 97–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958241296497
Call for Papers: DHNB 2027: Human(ities) in the Lopp
The phrase “Human-in-the-loop” that we often hear in current debates in AI research, invites scholars to critically engage with the...