Last week I watched new National Geographic documentary "Love + War," the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lynsey Addario.

Early in the film, Addario is being interviewed on stage about her work photographing war zones. A male moderator says, “You have a 10-week-old baby. Are you going to keep doing this?”

She scoffs and claps back, “Do you ask men that question?”

The documentary is entertaining, well-paced, harrowing, and gripping, but most of all it’s an inspiring look at the choices female journalists are forced to make. (Don’t worry, there are strong takeaways and discussion possibilities for all burgeoning journalists, no matter their gender or identity.)

I encourage you to show it in class or assign it for students to watch asynchronously. They will be delighted that you've given them an assignment that includes plenty of F-bombs. And who knows — you may just help inspire the next generation of brave female journalists.

Headlines

A lot of our conversation around AI and news seems to focus on the heavy hitters like The New York Times. Here's an interesting look at how AI writing is creeping into local outlets — and how that might not be all bad. (Remember, this is a headline roundup. Do not kill this messenger.)

A program at Boston University has provided more than 350 student-produced and professor-edited stories to local news outlets in and around the city.

If you've ever thought about launching a bilingual publication, here's a decade-long success story from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Mmm hmm: CNN’s app is adding a ‘Shorts’ feed for bite-size videos (The Verge)

It's interesting to look at how the two student newspapers at the University of Missouri, the professor-led Columbia Missourian and the student-led Maneater, handled the 10-year anniversary of campus protests centered on racism and inequality.

Since my Poynter days, I've been a rabid reader of anything OSINT (open source intelligence) — the gathering and analyzing of publicly available information that, for our purposes, helps journalists tell stories and conduct investigations. Other OSINT nerds might like this Nieman Lab story about the process of building an OSINT toolkit. Related: I really believe there is potential for OSINT in collegiate journalism and student media. If you or your students have produced any, will you send it my way?

Good for this Baylor Lariat editor for standing up for his staff while also providing transparency for his audience, following an apparently controversial man-on-the-street feature.

Resources

Common Ground USA is seeking 15-20 student journalists for its spring 2026 cohort. Selected students will attend six sessions with national and international journalists and peacebuilders, plus get a $200 stipend. Applications are due Jan. 15.

The government shutdown may be over and the SNAP crisis may have been avoided for now, but here's a handy guide from The Journalist’s Resource: Covering poverty: What to avoid and how to get it right.

Yes, it happens to students, too, and it's our obligation to protect them, with a little help from PEN America: Best Practices for News Organizations: How to Protect and Support Journalists Harassed Online.

Here's an interesting funder for a journalistic resource guide: Blue Shield of California Foundation is out with a playbook containing best practices for covering domestic violence.

Classroom ideas

TIME has had a rough go of it these last couple of decades, but I've always rooted for the magazine — probably because my father was an avid TIME reader when I was growing up, and there were always copies of the magazine around the house.

That's why I was fascinated to see its latest initiative, called TIME AI Agent.

It claims five core competencies, including the abilities to:

• Summarize news

• Generate audio versions of stories

• Translate content into 13 different languages

• Search robustly through the entire history of the publication

• Interact with readers to help with comprehension

At a time when journalism students are probably getting a lot of mixed messages about AI, I would be curious what they think about this.

Get them to test the tool. Does it work well? Does it seem like a good use of resources? Are there any ethical concerns? Do they see other applications for AI in publications they are familiar with or have worked for?

As always, I love to hear your feedback on these classroom assignments.

Student media stars

BGSU student fees heavily fund athletics; how does it compare to other MAC schools? (Bowling Green [Ohio] State University)

Clock out and lock in: Photographing the nightlife of College professors (The Williams [College] Record, Williamstown, Massachusetts)

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