At the recent annual conference of the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) in Abuja, veteran media trainer and founder of Journalism Clinic, Mr Taiwo Obe made a presentation titled AI &YOU :Take Charge in which he called on the editors to fully understand what AI is all about and how to use it to enhance their work beyond the traditional practice they were used to over the years.
He shared with them insights from various media experts on the use of AI and concluded that while tools for journalism practice would keep changing as we have experienced over the years, the purpose of journalism, according to the American Press Institute remains “to provide citizens with the information they need to make decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies and governments.”
Mr Obe’s call on the editors and the reminder of the purpose of journalism is in line with the topic I’m supposed to speak on.
There is no debate about the reality of the use of artificial intelligence in various spheres of life, including journalism. I’m not sure how many journalists are still using biro or pen to write, but traditional media practice has long been disrupted with various multimedia tools and platforms and AI has further reinforced the need for journalists not to remain analogue in how they go about their work.
If Nigerian journalists are to remain relevant and competitive locally and globally, we have no choice but to upskill and use various AI tools to become more efficient for various editorial tasks.
I’m aware that at individual levels, many Nigerian journalists are learning and adopting AI for their work, but there is need for official back-up at the management levels to ensure that best practices are adopted and prevent abuse as we have witnessed in some recent cases.
Essentially, AI tools have to be seen as newsroom assistant not replacement. There is therefore no need for anyone to fear, though there is the reality that those who don’t know how to use the tools don’t have a future in the profession.
To reinvent our journalism practice, we can leverage AI for research, brainstorming, ideation, transcription, translation, data analysis, newsroom automation and various other use.
While human judgment, context, ethics, and storytelling are still largely a function of who is writing or producing what content, there is the opportunity for speed and accuracy in production with the use of some AI tools.
Tools that provide for automated transcription, summarization, and fact-checking can reduce production time. AI can also help newsrooms break stories faster and improve accuracy in reporting, reducing errors caused by the pressure of deadlines.
Other re-invention journalism possibilities include the following:
*Data Journalism: Turning Numbers into Narratives
AI can empower Nigerian journalists to work with large datasets—elections, budgets, health stats, crime data and others. This creates deeper, evidence-based reporting and strengthens accountability journalism, particularly in a country like ours where access to public data is often challenging.
*Audience-Driven News: Personalisation and Engagement
AI can track audience behaviour to recommend story formats, angles, or platforms.
Enables newsrooms to create tailored content for Nigerians on WhatsApp, social media, radio, television and podcasts. This helps bridges the gap between content and consumer preference.
*Enhancing Safety: AI Tools for Journalist Protection
AI-powered tools can detect online harassment, misinformation attacks, or coordinated trolling.
Journalists reporting from risky areas can benefit from real-time language translation and security alerts.
*Combating Misinformation
Nigeria faces a huge misinformation challenge during elections, health crises, and conflict.
AI-driven tools help verify images, videos, locations, and claims faster.
I’m glad to note that apart from AI tools from major global organisations, we already have local tools that can perform the above roles developed by Nigerian journalists and organisations.
Some of them include NewsAssist by Elfredah Kelvin-Alerechi, NubiaAI by Dataphyte, NativeAI by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, Chatjourno by Ayomikunle Daramola, Chronycles StorySpark.
Some of the tools that incorporate Language models capture Nigerian languages, accents, street terminologies, and socio-cultural nuances.
While advocating form use of AI, journalists have to guide against ethical pitfalls considering that the tools are capable of reinforcing stereotypes and distort narratives when they hallucinate and make up what does not exist.
In accordance with the code of ethics for practice of journalism, there is still the need to uphold transparency, accuracy, fairness, and independence when using AI tool.
AI Ethical guidelines are being developed worldwide and we need to abide by them. Media organisations need to have their AI policies to guide their staff.
With re-training of journalists on digital skills, roles that are likely to be eliminated can be replaced with new ones like the following: AI Editors, Data Storytellers, Audience Intelligence Analysts, Automation Managers, AI Fact-check Specialists and others.
Media organizations will also need to hire tech staff who can develop their own unique tools and collaborate with universities, startups, and media NGOs to build Nigerian-relevant AI tools.
Undoubtedly, the present and future newsrooms would be Hybrid, Automated, Collaborative and only journalists and organisations able to adapt will survive the continuing digital disruption.
Newsrooms will become hybrid spaces where journalists, coders, AI systems, and product teams work together.
There would be need for more investment and continuing re-training for journalists and other media workers to catch up with the constantly changing media eco-system to achieve the desired re-invention of journalism practice.
