ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Reforming Media Curricula in Palestinian Universities for AI and Digital Culture: Student and Expert Perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- Arab American University, Jenin, Palestine
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming journalism and media education, yet little is known about how conflict-affected, resource-constrained systems can adapt. Drawing on institutional theory and decolonial AI perspectives, this study assesses the pedagogical and institutional readiness of Palestinian universities to integrate AI into journalism curricula, responding to the ethical and technological imperatives of the Fifth Industrial Revolution. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, we surveyed 221 media students and interviewed 36 faculty experts across nine West Bank universities. Quantitative results revealed moderate satisfaction, persistent infrastructure gaps, and a full mediation effect, whereby faculty readiness explained the link between infrastructure adequacy and student satisfaction. Students prioritized AI ethics (82%), fake news detection, and newsroom automation, reflecting a demand for critical and responsible AI education. Qualitative analysis identified seven themes, including epistemic disruption (challenges to traditional knowledge systems), interdisciplinary convergence, ethical reflexivity, and critical localism (context-grounded curricular reform). Experts rejected imported models and called for programs grounded in local identity, justice, and sociopolitical context. The study proposes a triadic reform framework: epistemic reconfiguration, ethical anchoring, and pedagogical adaptability. These findings extend institutional theory and decolonial AI discourse, offering a culturally responsive roadmap for AI curriculum reform in fragile academic systems. Practically, the study calls for coordinated action among universities, ministries, and global partners to build inclusive, adaptive, and justice-centered AI literacy in media education.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, Media education, Curriculum reform, Algorithms, Palestinian Universities, digital culture
Received: 03 Aug 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Khlouf. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mahmoud Mohammad Mustafa Khlouf, mahmoud.khlouf@aaup.edu
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