Our February panel, "How AI is Impacting Journalism, Free Speech, and Public Discourse," brought together journalists and researchers to discuss how AI is reshaping the way news is reported and disseminated, the way we learn and communicate, and what that means for free speech and democracy.
In this clip, John Wihbey, director of the AI-Media Strategies Lab at Northeastern University and an associate professor of media innovation in the College of Arts, Media and Design, argues that the long-standing "grand bargain" between platforms and journalism has broken. For years, platform companies claimed they didn't owe much to journalism because they sent traffic its way. With that trade-off gone, Wihbey makes the case for a real regulatory intervention and a new way of valuing high-quality information in the token economy. His argument: high-quality, curated data sets like news articles are the lifeblood of an informed citizenry, and without them, we lose the foundation for sound elections and public health decisions.
Knight Science Journalism at MIT
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We offer experienced journalists the opportunity to increase their understanding of science, technology, medicine and the environment. Non-U.S.
Knight Science Journalism at MIT helps science and technology journalists build their competence, confidence, and connections through a nine-month fellowship program structured around course work, seminars, field trips, and workshops. The nine-month Fellowships have now trained more than 330 journalists from every continent except Antarctica. fellows have been appointed since 1984, and now typical
05/19/2026
Last week, we gathered MIT leaders and faculty, former KSJ directors, and journalists including current and former fellows to celebrate the life and legacy of Victor McElheny. There were dozens in attendance, including three generations of McElheny’s family. Read more from KSJ director Usha Lee McFarling:
At Victor McElheny Luncheon, Luminaries Reflect on KSJ Founder’s Life and Legacy - Knight Science Journalism @MIT The event featured a panel discussion marking 25 years since the signature achievement of the Human Genome Project, which revolutionized biology and captivated McElheny as a reporter.
05/18/2026
Meet the 2026-27 Knight Science Journalism Fellows | Karem Monzer is a Lebanese journalist and filmmaker, and Managing Editor at Beirut Today.
05/16/2026
Meet the 2026-27 Knight Science Journalism Fellows | Smriti Mallapaty is a senior reporter for Nature magazine based in Sydney, Australia.
05/14/2026
How does race shape the way science gets done, medicine gets practiced, and stories get told? Our Spring Lecture with MIT STS brought together David S. Jones, Oliver Rollins, and KSJ Director Usha Lee McFarling to dig into the history — and what comes next.
05/13/2026
Meet the 2026-27 Knight Science Journalism Fellows | Sam Fellman is the deputy editor for defense at Business Insider, where he leads coverage of military affairs and works with journalists based around the world.
05/12/2026
Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum joined the Knight Science Journalism program this spring for a seminar on covering the Amazon from inside it.
Brum founded SUMAÚMA, a trilingual outlet built around local and Indigenous reporters covering the Amazon, the Cerrado, and biomes the rest of the press treats as periphery. She received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University in 2021 and was named Prospect magazine's World's Top Thinker of 2025.
📸: Photo: Sumaúma, Lela Beltrão — 2026
05/08/2026
Since starting her career as a visual journalist at the New York Times, Leslye Davis has worked across photo and print journalism, as well as short and long-form video.
🔗: https://ksj.mit.edu/news/2026/05/08/leslye-davis-on-the-power-of-visual-storytelling/
04/03/2026
We're proud to announce the 10 outstanding undergraduate journalism students to our 2026-27 HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship class.
The fellowship, now entering its third year, provides undergraduate journalism students and other students with a strong interest in journalism with training, mentorship, and early career support to report on science, health, and environmental issues.
KSJ Names 2026-27 HBCU Science Journalism Fellowship Class - Knight Science Journalism @MIT Representing five different Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the students are interested in everything from AI to astronomy.
03/26/2026
Sarah McBride has built her career on finding the human stories behind Silicon Valley’s biggest technologies. McBride is now at MIT, where she is a 2025–26 Knight Science Journalism Fellow. In an interview edited for length and clarity, we spoke with her about her path to journalism, navigating hype cycles, and finding the human elements of technology stories.
Sarah McBride, on Unearthing Human Stories in Silicon Valley The KSJ Fellow and former Bloomberg reporter reflects on skepticism, storytelling, and sourcing on a fast-evolving business beat.
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