KINGSTON, Jamaica — Media practitioners and academics are calling for closer partnerships among universities, employers and Corporate Jamaica to better prepare students for a communications industry being reshaped by artificial intelligence, shrinking newsrooms and changing audience demands.

The call came during a Brand Builders Live panel discussion hosted by Red Stripe under the theme, “The Future of PR: A Journalist’s Perspective”.

Editors, journalists, educators and communications professionals debated the continued value of university degrees, the structure of internship programmes and whether graduates are receiving enough practical preparation before entering journalism, public relations and corporate communications.