Preparing Students for AI-Mediated Societies: A Theoretical Inquiry into Media, Education, and Algorithmic Culture in Gujarat’s Higher Education Landscape

With the creation of AI from media setups, educational systems, and public institutions, we bear witness to the rise of AI-mediated societies, in which algorithms have come to shape knowledge-making and circulation. In the field of higher education, and in Journalism and Mass Media studies in particular, undergraduates are ensconced at a moment when they are being socialized into information worlds that are conditioned by automated news production systems, algorithmic curation protocols, data analysis machinery, and AI-informed instructive platforms. This article is a conceptual and theoretical inquiry into how higher education institutions in Gujarat could prepare students to critically engage with such AI-mediated realities. Based on Media Ecology Theory, Technological Determinism, Uses and Gratifications Theory, the Critical Political Economy of Media, and Posthumanist thought, this paper adopts an interpretive framework to examine the cultural, ethical, and pedagogical implications of integrating AI in media education. Anchored in the policy context of India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the study argues that preparing students for AI-mediated societies requires theoretical literacy, critical media awareness, and ethical reasoning rather than an exclusive focus on technical skill acquisition. By foregrounding the Gujarat higher education context, the paper contributes a regionally grounded perspective to global debates on AI, education, and media transformation.