Carleton journalism students formed a “news team” that covered this week’s annual Carleton Challenge Conference, which focused on the challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence. You can see the work of the student reporters on the Challenge conference website.
Podcasters Audrey Pridham (L) and Olivia Grandy at work, interviewing Carleton professors Majid Komeili and Danielle Manley.
A team of six journalism students, working together with journalism professor Randy Boswell, reported on the conference. They posted news stories, social media video content and a dedicated podcast. The students were also supported by two of the journalism program’s technical experts, Dave Elliott for video production and David Sarazin for audio.
The news team included Master of Journalism students Will Brady and Julia Stratton and Bachelor of Journalism students Simone Brown, Olivia Grandy, Audrey Pridham and Allison Young. Grandy and Pridham focused on the AI Challenge Podcast while the other reporters generated text-based stories and video social media content. Episodes of the AI Challenge Podcast are dropping now and can be heard on such platforms as Spotify as well as Apple Podcasts and others.
For several years, Carleton’s journalism program has made it a habit to form news teams comprised of journalism students who are paid to cover the conferences we convene. This kind of work provides terrific experience for young journalists, who get to apply the skills they’ve acquired in our classrooms and workshops. They also create a valuable permanent record of these events.
The news team gathers for a production meeting.
Over the years, journalism student news teams have covered a number of events, beginning with the 2017 conference Media and Mass Atrocity: the Rwanda Genocide and Beyond, followed by the 2020 event Journalism in the Time of Crisis, a virtual conference examining the role of journalism during the pandemic.
MJ student Julia Stratton conducting an interview with a conference participant.
Student news teams also chronicled last May’s event Journalism and Artificial Intelligence – an industry roundtable as well as a three-day conference held in November, Re-imagining Political Journalism. And on May 21-22, a news team led by Prof. Boswell will be covering a two-day conference held by Carleton’s chapter of Scholars at Risk.
“The reality is, there is a wealth of very newsworthy material that is shared at these academic conferences, and yet in the current media landscape, these gatherings receive virtually no attention from working journalists,” said Allan Thompson, Director of Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication.
“These news teams serve a double purpose – capturing a permanent record of these important gatherings hosted by Carleton but also creating an enriching experience and paid work for some of our top students.”
Journalism student work can be found on the conference website.
Friday, May 16, 2025 in General, Journalism News, News
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