McClatchy and Rebele Symposia bring students, alumni, faculty to discuss challenges and emerging technologies in the journalism industry
Stanford Journalism faculty and students from the past through the present gathered May 8 and 9 to celebrate “135 Years of Journalism at Stanford” for the 2026 McClatchy and Rebele Symposia.
The event, with two days of panels featuring alumni, explored the urgent challenges and technological shifts the news industry is undergoing. It also recognized that journalism has been part of the university dating to its founding in 1891. Technologies for delivering news have evolved since that time, but the values of truth and accuracy and the importance of watchdog storytelling persist, according to Jay Hamilton, director of the Stanford Journalism program and Hearst Professor of Communication.
The gathering was also a chance to celebrate the commitment and impact of two retiring faculty members, R.B. Brenner and Geri Migielicz, who have both taught and mentored hundreds of Stanford undergraduate and graduate students.
“At Stanford, students learn to discover stories others don’t see and tell them in highly engaging ways. Many of the alums at the symposia credited Geri, R.B., and other faculty with giving them the tools to excel in the story telling essential to accountability reporting,” Hamilton said.
The symposia began with a May 8 panel titled "Covering Power in a Divided Era," which included a discussion of how today’s journalists increasingly face hostility from the politicians and other powerful people they cover. The panelists — Alexei Koseff of the San Francisco Chronicle, Marianne Levine of the Wall Street Journal, and Elissa Miolene of Devex — spoke about the hurdles they’ve had to overcome while covering the White House, federal government agencies, and the California Governor’s office.
“It was extraordinary to hear how our alumni are overcoming access issues with the current administration,” said panel moderator Janine Zacharia, the Carlos Kelly McClatchy Lecturer in the Journalism Program. “Not only are they having trouble getting comments. But the hostility with which officials are responding to accountability reporting is just astounding.”
Panelist Jenna Fowler, senior audience editor for the New York Times, provided insights into reader behavior and how newsroom leaders think about packaging and distributing stories to facilitate better understanding in today’s rapid fire, around-the-clock news cycle.
“Amid all the attacks on journalists today and all the doom and gloom around the industry, it is easy to lose sight of what's actually working,” Zacharia said. “Our alumni are a reminder of all the outstanding work being done.”
Brianna Sosa, a current Stanford Journalism graduate student, said she was both inspired and reassured after hearing from the four panelists.
“It was so impressive,” Sosa said, adding that she is dealing with officials who don’t want to talk with her for a story. “It made me hopeful … and it’s interesting to see how [the panelists] navigate and overcome those hurdles.”
In a May 9 panel, alumni talked about how they incorporate narrative journalism techniques into their work. Brenner, the moderator, said he and panelists Erin Edwards, Hannah Bassett and Xavier Edwards wanted to give the audience an understanding of what narrative journalism is — mixing the rigorous reporting of nonfiction with the storytelling methods of fiction — and how journalists may encounter these types of stories as they work in the field. Edwards is a freelance journalist and author, Martinez reports for the Wall Street Journal, and Bassett covers the Vermont state government for Seven Days, a weekly publication.
“This was a reminder that to do narrative journalism well, it's all about human interactions, relationships, gaining trust, being there, seeing things, reporting with all your human senses,” Brenner said.
Kenzie Possee, a current graduate student, said she is already applying lessons from the panel to her current story assignments, citing Bassett’s advice on building trust by walking sources through the process upfront. Possee also noted Brenner’s reminder to never force a narrative on a story that doesn’t call for it. “We can always bring the techniques to our reporting and writing,” Possee said.
The symposia wrapped up with two discussions revolving around AI technologies and their impact on news production and consumption.
A panel moderated by Migielicz featured alumni from The New York Times, the Associated Press, WBUR, and the Marianas Press, who discussed the “arms race” between AI identification tools and AI-generated misinformation. Dylan Freedman, AI projects editor for The New York Times, and others emphasized the need for newsroom-wide training on how to spot fake content and a news organization's responsibilities in helping audiences distinguish what’s real from what's not.
The last panel on AI-infused data journalism was led by faculty members Serdar Tumgoren and Cheryl Phillips. Alumni from LAist, ProPublica, and The Houston Chronicle discussed how AI technologies are transforming data journalism and enabling investigations that previously might have been impossible.
AI impacts many facets of journalism, including the labor force. “Journalists in general are worried that there might be cuts,” Tumgoren said. “On the one hand, [AI] can streamline their work, expand their capacities, but there are legitimate concerns about … is this replacing a worker or is this creating new demands on workers who were hired to do a very particular kind of work?”
The panel also touched on the challenges of teaching data journalism in the age of AI, and some pondered whether current and future journalism students need to learn to code. “Can we teach different methodologies that can bring some rigor to the work that don't require you to spend five or 10 years becoming a coding expert,” Tumgoren asked.
