SoJ Faculty Member Exploring the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the News Industry

As AI continues to reshape the news industry, University of Arizona School of Journalism Assistant Professor Zicheng Cheng is exploring how the technology can help reporters work more efficiently.

This summer, Cheng completed the "Advanced Prompt Engineering for Journalists" course through the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas based at the University of Texas at Austin. The month-long online course brought together journalists, researchers, educators and computer scientists from around the world, giving participants a chance to share projects, interact through discussion boards and learn from one another.

Cheng’s engagement in the course was supported through the School’s new Faculty Enhancement Fund, which encourages SoJ instructors to upskill their talents in the latest technologies and approaches to journalism. This funding was established in Spring 2026, as a tactic contained in the School’s new strategic plan.

One of Cheng's biggest takeaways was that while AI can make research and reporting tasks more efficient, journalists are still responsible for ensuring their reporting is accurate.

"It's kind of like you have a research assistant working for you,” Cheng said. “But the caveat is you need to understand exactly what the AI agent is doing and make sure it uses the right methods.”

Cheng previously completed the Knight Center's introductory prompt engineering course, which focused on using AI chatbots for basic newsroom tasks. The advanced course expanded on those concepts by introducing AI agents capable of completing more complex, multi-step assignments using user-approved data sources.

To put those skills into practice, Cheng worked in the advanced Knight Center course with an AI assistant through ChatGPT to analyze six years of local police crime log data.

"I think it's very valuable to journalists, policymakers and leaders to have this kind of data and to use tools for data analyses and trend analyses," Cheng said.

She also experimented with OpenAI's Codex coding agent as part of the course, using it to scrape publicly available meeting minutes, download the files, summarize them and identify the most-often discussed topics.

"Even if you don't know how to code, you can now write a prompt and explain your requests," Cheng said.

Cheng is already bringing conversations about AI back into the classroom. 

In her Digging with Data course, students recently experimented with AI tools, while discussing the ethical considerations surrounding AI, including transparency, accuracy, environmental impacts and the importance of verifying AI-generated work.

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Last semester, Cheng also invited two journalists from The Athletic/New York Times to speak with her class about how AI is being used in their newsroom. The guest speakers discussed the publication's policies and guidelines for using AI throughout the reporting and storytelling process, giving students a firsthand look at how current professionals are navigating the technology.

Beyond teaching, Cheng is incorporating AI into her own research. While her scholarship has traditionally focused on news consumption and social media, she is now studying how AI can assist with media research, including using AI to analyze TikTok content. She is also working with students to compare AI-assisted coding with human coding to better understand whether AI can be a reliable tool for content analysis.

Cheng will continue experimenting with AI tools and will introduce more opportunities for students to explore their potential when her classes start again this fall.

"I would love to see if these [tools] can be useful for students, and experiment within our School to see how AI can help make our lives easier," she said.

This fall, Cheng will expand opportunities for students interested in AI as a faculty advisor for the University's new Media, AI, and Public Life (MAPL) Vertically Integrated Project. The research team will bring together undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines to explore how AI is transforming media and public life while contributing to long-term research projects that examine the impact of digital communications.