Artificial intelligence in Departments of Communication: A course proposal

Abstract

When communication and mass media faculty returned from a kind of exile that COVID-19 had inflicted on them, they were hit almost immediately with the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI). The fall semester of 2023 seemed to usher in a new means by which students would complete assignments that left faculty scratching their heads. They faced a new form of information retrieval that students (as well as faculty) were using that, at once, yielded more substantive prose while at the same time posed new questions about authorship, trust, reliability, bias and even personhood. The discipline of communication and media studies bears a particular responsibility to contemplate the massive change underway with the use of AI. Most of us in the field have dedicated our careers to considering the human-media-culture interface. Media ecologists, in particular, routinely explore how media shape culture, conscience and communication. Yet many of us have not known what to make of the phenomenon suddenly surging in academics and in all sectors of society. This article seeks to offer a framework, cultivated out of media ecological sensibilities, for critically examining implications of AI in the realm of communication. Specifically, we have designed a graduate course that takes up the major lines of inquiry into how AI challenges conventions and urges new paradigms in our discipline. Our article offers a course proposal that communication faculty can adopt to their curriculum. It consists of a sample course syllabus, recommended textbooks and YouTube videos, sample assignments, a review of major AI themes in scholarly and trade journals, a suggested media ecology tool for critical application (the Tetrad), and an extensive bibliography. The overall objective of our course proposal is to guide reflection on the implications of AI in various communication contexts and environments.