A few years ago, associate journalism professor Paul Niwa found himself crossing a three-kilometer ice field in hurricane-force winds with 40 pounds of equipment on his back. Navigating this treacherous part of southern Iceland’s Laugavegur trail with his son, he sprained an ankle and was later evacuated with assistance from a rescue team while he helped administer aid to another party of unfortunate backpackers. Yet, reliving the whole adventure on the ice from his Walker Building office, Niwa said his only regret is packing too heavily—a credo he applied to his career in journalism, and still carries today.

For him, being able to “go fast in life,” unburdened by extra baggage, is an important value and exemplified in his escapades as an avid outdoorsman. It’s also a mindset that Niwa brought to Emerson’s classrooms—now for the last time—as he retires after over two decades at the college this month.

Sitting among a clutter of boxes, file folders, and containers of old miscellaneous cables as he cleaned out his office in preparation for his departure, Niwa is again shedding bric-a-brac on his way to a faster future.

“That’s 24 years of stuff that has been keeping me from moving fast,” he said, looking around at his desk, where the only items left unturned are piles of memories from classes of his past.

“I did not realize, when I started at Emerson, that the most valuable part of my career would be the achievement of my students,” he said, holding up rediscovered troves of senior theses and project submissions from former students. “I think that’s the greatest legacy,” he added.

Niwa created and teaches Emerson’s AI in Journalism class. In this and other courses he has taught, Niwa said adaptability to emerging technologies is key. At times, he said that after seeing a new innovation, he has decided to drop his planned course calendar and use the course to go and “figure this out.” While he said it’s clear this makes many students uncomfortable, that’s largely by design.

“That’s the kind of nimbleness you need to be able to survive in this kind of world that we live in,” he added. “Our role in academia is to create new ideas, new technologies, new ways of thinking through problems that require us to be uncomfortable.”

A former chair of the journalism department, Niwa had an extensive career in broadcast news before coming to Emerson, including launching international television networks, multiple newscasts, and being an early innovator in internet newscasting for NBC, CNBC, and other media companies.

Niwa’s interest in pushing boundaries and norms underscores his interest in journalism, and what he’s gained from teaching it: a place where he could tell the truth, painfully if needed, and without fear.

“Emerson gave me that, and that’s such a privilege,” he said. “That is a niche that I think we need to really value, and it enabled somebody like me to be able to find a home here,” he said, adding that achieving tenure at the college, even without a Ph.D., further illuminated the attitude that made Emerson special to him.

Niwa said the need to embrace change and new ideas is especially true of AI in journalism, which he called the most transformational and universal technology since HTML.

“As journalists, we should be challenging our assumptions all the time … [We can] make up all kinds of reasons why we shouldn’t engage with AI, but that’s like saying you don’t trust yourself,” he said.

While many fear negative impacts on news jobs and journalistic credibility due to AI, Niwa said he is “very optimistic” and excited by emerging possibilities. 

“It’s the culture of journalism to try to be cynical and negative about the prospects [of] what we’re doing, but deep inside I think we really believe in what we do otherwise … we wouldn’t put so much effort into it,” he said.

Niwa said many journalists who refuse to use AI are ignoring the foundational way it has already changed industry standards. He explained it would be hard for many journalists to do transcription, or even to find sources without touching AI in some way, especially due to its overwhelming presence in social media and search algorithms.

Niwa said he does hear concerns about the environmental damage of this technology, and companies need to do better at prioritizing renewables.

“But when you do the calculations, AI uses as much power as a light bulb in your dorm, and we don’t think twice about turning the lights on,” he added. He said it’s inaccurate to say AI is “unethical,” “wrong,” or “evil,” rather, it’s who is using it, and how they’re using it, that makes it so. 

He expressed optimism about the future of Emerson as an institution and its journalism and communications programs, saying its “best days are ahead,”—a sentiment also applicable to his career.

“I always said that when my best work is behind me, that is the day when I’m gonna retire,” he said. “Now I’m retiring in a month, and I believe that my best work is still ahead of me, and I’m not sure what that means.”

Niwa’s current project, which he said retirement will help him devote more time to, is a biography of Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Japanese-American war hero from Hawaii who served in the Senate for over 40 years. His connection to Inouye was forged from a deep relationship he shared with the Senator’s late wife, Irene Hirano Inouye. A lifelong business executive, non-profit board member, and mentor for Niwa, she asked him to write her husband’s biography before her death in 2020.

“This was her last gift to me, and I think she knew that this would be really fulfilling to me to explore a different side of who I am,” Niwa said, explaining that in addition to historical research, the book will take inspiration from time he spent with the Senator before Inouye died in 2012.

Even amid concerns about how the journalism industry is shifting, and fewer matriculations of incoming journalism majors at Emerson itself, Niwa said there is little reason to think things won’t improve, having ridden out many ups and downs in the department.

His departure from the college comes at a time when the relationship between students, faculty, and their administrators remains fractured on campus. This was the second consecutive year of enrollment decline at Emerson, resulting in staff layoffs and the creation of incentive programs for faculty early retirement. Niwa, who said he had already planned to retire within a few years, is leaving the college as part of this incentive program. 

The enrollment decline and subsequent layoffs have been connected with multiple years of fervent debate on campus over free speech and protest, following the arrest of 118 pro-Palestine protesters at the “Popular University Encampment” in April 2024, and more recently, disciplinary measures initiated against four Emerson students following criminal charges for involvement in an off-campus Oct. 7 protest. Niwa said the encampment protests “really fractured this college,” and have resonated into just about every area of campus in the ensuing years. 

“I think the way it was handled was really poor … and that is a drag on our energy,” he said. Echoing his other calls to uncomfortability, Niwa said the community should “embrace the tension” on campus. “The negativity should make you restless and move you forward,” he added.

He connected this back to Hirano Inouye, the senator’s late wife, who he said was part of a long tradition of kinship between Japanese and Jewish Americans; Hirano Inouye seized on this and used it to help foster relationships between her community, Jewish, and Arab Americans.

“I think that’s what we have to think through, is how we’re gonna pull everything together,” he said.

The Japanese American National Museum, which she also helped lead before her passing, was confronted with anti-DEI campaigns by the Trump administration last spring amid pressures faced across higher education and other institutions.

“This college [Emerson] and many other institutions chose to wipe out a lot of those values, not make them as explicit,” he said. Niwa added the museum had a very different response, which he loves them for; “Scrub nothing, our history happened,” he explained.

For him, this reflects important values as he and Emerson continue in their own directions going forward.

“I’ve said this many times in my classes over the past two years: Emerson is bigger than one person. America is bigger than one person,” He said. “We really cannot be defined by … one person’s opinion.”