The deskilling dilemma: ChatGPT, pedagogical obligation, and the paradox of journalism education

Abstract This paper critically examines the perceived impact of ChatGPT on journalism and mass communication education in the United States, with particular attention to how the technology is framed by instructors within the field. Using a survey of 91 educators, the study explores perceived threats, benefits, and pedagogical adaptations related to generative AI. Drawing on critical perspectives from science and technology studies, the paper interrogates the notion of “disruption” in journalism education, analyzing how AI tools are reshaping assumptions about authorship, expertise, and the future of media labor. While some educators see promise in using ChatGPT for writing assistance or curriculum augmentation, others express concern over misinformation, plagiarism, and the deskilling of critical journalistic judgment. This paradoxical tension exists between acknowledgment of the responsibility to teach proper use of ChatGPT, given its central role in current journalistic production practice, and acute awareness of how overreliance on generative AI risks not only deskilling but also eroding the expressive and epistemic labor central to journalism. Based on Giroux’s critical pedagogy and Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation, the study calls for a reflexive, ethically grounded approach to integrating generative AI, informed by a broader understanding of technological governance and academic labor in the digital university.