Carleton journalism duo awarded Michener fellowship for AI literacy project
By Allyson Yang
Jessica Patterson and Kanina Holmes have won the Michener – L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for Journalism Education for their project, “AI Literacy for Canadian Journalism Education.”
The fellowship, awarded by the Michener Awards Foundation, recognizes initiatives that advance public service in Canadian journalism. For more than 50 years, the Michener Awards have honoured journalism that contributes to the public good.
Patterson, an alumna of Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, and Holmes, an associate professor at the same school, developed a project to test and create modules that will prepare students for the critical and ethical use of AI in newsrooms. The initiative focuses on strengthening the public’s trust in journalism by ensuring that journalists are trained to use these tools responsibly. “We’re grateful for the Michener Foundation’s support, which makes this work possible,” said Patterson, who will receive a recognition of the fellowship with Holmes on June 18 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
Patterson said the project grew out of interviews she and colleague Terra Tailleur conducted with editors-in-chief at 12 Canadian newsrooms last year. Those conversations suggested that many newsrooms still lacked clear frameworks or policies for using AI, leaving journalists cautious about how to adopt the technology responsibly and ethically.
“Layered over all of it was this new reality: that AI was now part of the editorial workflow, and it wasn’t going anywhere, but journalism education had not yet caught up,” said Patterson, who studied with Holmes as a graduate student in journalism.
“Newsrooms were asking for graduates who could think critically, verify accurately and be able to use AI tools responsibly, but there was no shared, Canadian, ready-to-use curriculum to help educators prepare students for that reality. The fellowship project is my attempt to bridge that gap.”
Patterson and Holmes plan to create a curriculum that any journalism program in Canada can use, providing instructors with practical modules and training so they don’t need to build resources from scratch.
The project arrives at a moment when news organizations are still working out how to use AI responsibly, while balancing questions about accuracy, bias and transparency.
“It feels like we’re living in the Wild West when it comes to AI,” Holmes said. “Journalism students are navigating a chaotic information ecosystem at a time when the value of what we bring to the public sphere is questioned.”
Holmes said the fellowship provides an opportunity to collaborate with students and instructors to identify gaps in AI education and explore its implications for both learning and professional practice.
“A key question we need to constantly ask ourselves is: how do we know what we know?” Holmes said. “AI often obscures the provenance of information, making critical media literacy more vital than ever.”
The project received strong support from Carleton University’s Teaching and Learning Services as well as the director of the journalism program, Allan Thompson.
“This project addresses head-on an urgent need identified across Canadian journalism programs,’’ Thompson said. “As educators, we recognize the gap between newsroom expectations for AI literacy and current pedagogical resources. We urgently need tested, ready-to-use curriculum modules that balance practical AI tool training with critical ethical frameworks.”
Patterson said her immediate focus is completing the project well, with the hope that it will create a foundation for broader adoption across Canadian journalism schools. She hopes to foster a community of practice around AI literacy in journalism education so the work can evolve alongside changing technology and newsroom expectations.