GenAI and Digital Media: Challenges, Approaches, and Solutions for the Classroom and Beyond

While in the past year we, as instructors, have focused significant attention on the challenges and disruption introduced in our courses by Large Language Models like ChatGPT, we have given less consideration to the role of audiovisual GenAI tools like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, NotebookLM “podcasts”, and others in media-oriented classes. Such tools are prompting ethical and existential crises across media industries, including journalism, film, television, photography, graphic design, advertising, and more, as AI-supported tools replace or diminish the contribution of human labor and call conventional notions of intellectual property, authorship, authenticity, and truth into question. These same crises play out – or will soon play out – in media-oriented classes as such tools become more prevalent and accessible for everyday use. This panel will share findings and observations about how these tools can introduce new questions about authorship and academic integrity while also offering approaches to leverage these tools constructively and ethically. In addition, the panel will discuss the impact such tools are having on media industries and how we can best prepare students to enter these career paths in this rapidly changing AI-infused landscape.