This special issue interrogates how artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI (GenAI), is reshaping journalism at a moment of profound uncertainty for the profession. The rapid rise of GenAI technologies, particularly following the release of tools like ChatGPT, has intensified longstanding tensions between economic precarity, technological innovation, and journalistic values. Across diverse contexts in the Global North and South, articles examine how AI is simultaneously heralded as a source of efficiency, personalization, and newsroom survival, while also feared as a destabilizing force that threatens jobs, erodes professional norms, and concentrates power in the hands of technology corporations.
Category: Allen Munoriyarwa, Ph.D.
Allen Munoriyarwa, Ph.D.
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Dis/Misinformation, WhatsApp Groups, and Informal Fact-Checking Practices in Namibia
This chapter contributes to our understanding of organic and informal user correction practices emerging in WhatsApp groups in Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. This is important in a context where formal infrastructures of correcting and debunking dis/misinformation have been dominated by top-down initiatives. These formal infrastructures include platform-centric content moderation practices and professional fact-checking processes. Unlike social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, which can perform content moderation and hence take down offending content, the end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) infrastructure of WhatsApp creates a very different scenario where the same approach is not possible. This is because only the users involved in the conversation have access to the content shared, shielding false and abusive content from being detected or removed. As Kuru et al.(2022) opine, the privacy of end-to-end encryption provides a highly closed communication space, posing a different set of challenges for misinformation detection and intervention than with more open social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. In this regard, false and misleading information on WhatsApp constitutes” a distinctive problem”(Kuru et al. 2022; Melo et al. 2020). As Reis et al.(2020, 2) observe,“the end-to-end en-crypted (E2EE) structure of WhatsApp creates a very different scenario” where content moderation and fact checking at scale is not possible. Fact-checking WhatsApp groups, which have been flagged as the major distributors of mis-and disinformation is equally difficult.
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The philanthrocapitalism of google news initiative in Africa, Latin America, and the middle east–empirical reflections
In recent years, media organizations globally have increasingly benefited from financial support from digital platforms. In 2018, Google launched the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge aimed at bolstering journalism by encouraging innovation in media organizations. This study, conducted through 36 in-depth interviews with GNI beneficiaries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, reveals that despite its narrative of enhancing technological innovation for the media’s future, this scheme inadvertently fosters dependence and extends the philanthrocapitalism concept to the media industry on a global scale. Employing a theory-building approach, our research underscores the emergence of a new form of ‘philanthrocapitalism’ that prompts critical questions about the dependency of media organizations on big tech and the motives of these tech giants in their evolving relationship with such institutions. We also demonstrate that the GNI Innovative Challenge, while ostensibly promoting sustainable business models through technological innovation, poses challenges for organizations striving to sustain and develop these projects. The proposed path to sustainability by the GNI is found to be indirect and difficult for organizations to navigate, hindering their adoption of new technologies. Additionally, the study highlights the creation of a dependency syndrome among news organizations, driven by the perception that embracing GNI initiatives is crucial for survival in the digital age. Ultimately, the research contributes valuable insights to the understanding of these issues, aiming to raise awareness among relevant stakeholders and conceptualize philanthrocapitalism through a new lens.
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Whole-Person Education for AI Engineers: Presented to CEEA (Peer Reviewed)
This autoethnographic study explores the need for interdisciplinary education spanning both technical an philosophical skills – as such, this study leverages whole-person education as a theoretical approach needed in AI engineering education to address the limitations of current paradigms that prioritize technical expertise over ethical and societal considerations. Drawing on a collaborative autoethnography approach of fourteen diverse stakeholders, the study identifies key motivations driving the call for change, including the need for global perspectives, bridging the gap between academia and industry, integrating ethics and societal impact, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. The findings challenge the myths of technological neutrality and technosaviourism, advocating for a future where AI engineers are equipped not only with technical skills but also with the ethical awareness, social responsibility, and interdisciplinary understanding necessary to navigate the complex challenges of AI development. The study provides valuable insights and recommendations for transforming AI engineering education to ensure the responsible development of AI technologies.
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Shifting the Gaze? Photojournalism Practices in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
In this article, we explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies on photojournalism in less-researched contexts in Botswana and Zimbabwe. We aim to understand how AI technologies, proliferating aspects of news production, are impacting one of journalism’s respected and enduring trades- photojournalism. We answer the question: In what ways are AI-driven technologies impacting photojournalism practices? Furthermore, we investigate how photojournalists perceive their roles and the ethical considerations that come to the fore as AI begin to technically influence photojournalism. We deploy an eclectic analytical framework consisting of the critical technology theory, disruptive innovation theory and Baudrillard’s concept of simulation to theorise how AI technologies affect photojournalism in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with practising photojournalists and …
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‘Mind the gap’: artificial intelligence and journalism training in Southern African journalism schools
This article examines journalism schools (J-schools) responses to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) ‘disruption’. It critically provides an exploratory examination of how J-Schools in Southern Africa are responding to the AI wave in their journalism curriculums. We answer the question: How are Southern African J-Schools responding to AI in their curriculums? Using a disruptive innovation theoretical lens and through documentary review of university teaching initiatives and accredited journalism curriculums, augmented by in-depth interviews, we demonstrate that AI has opened up new horizons for journalism training in multi-dimensional ways. However, this has brought challenges, including covert forms of resistance to AI integration by some Journalism educators. Furthermore, resource constraints and the obduracy of J-schools’ curriculums also contribute to the slow introduction of AI in J-schools.
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Data Journalism Appropriation in African Newsrooms: A Comparative Study of Botswana and Namibia
Data journalism has received relatively limited academic attention in Southern Africa, with even less focus on smaller countries such as Botswana and Namibia. This article seeks to address this gap by exploring how selected newsrooms in these countries have engaged with data journalism, the ways it has enhanced their daily news reporting, and its impact on newsgathering and production routines. The study reveals varied patterns in the adoption of technology for data journalism across the two contexts. While certain skills remain underdeveloped, efforts to train journalists in data journalism have been evident. These findings support the argument that in emerging economies, the uneven adoption of data journalism technologies is influenced by exposure to these tools and practices.
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Data Journalism, Accountability and Transparency in Zimbabwe’s ‘New Dispensation’: Some Empirical Reflections
In this chapter, we explore the intersection of data journalism practices with issues of (governance) transparency and accountability. We advance the argument that data journalism can be instrumental in helping journalists seek accountability in opaque regimes that have an uneasy relationship with watchdog journalism. We use the Zimbabwe’s post-coup regime to demonstrate that at the centre of political authoritarianism, is a refusal to account, and a culture of non-transparency. Faced with such, the media can utilise publicly available sources of data journalism to exercise their responsibility. Data journalism is, hence, critical as a media practice that provides avenues for journalists in semi-authoritarian regimes to continuously pursue their mandates as accountability seekers. Our chapter contributes to emerging literature on data journalism in Africa, especially in semi-authoritarian contests like that of Zimbabwe.
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Unravelling socio-technological barriers to AI integration: A qualitative study of Southern African newsrooms
This study explores the socio-technological barriers to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions in three countries of the global south – South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Through 20 in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, it examines the distribution and circulation of AI technologies within selected newsrooms. Furthermore, the article explores socio-technological obstacles to the integration of AI among journalists. Lastly, it examines the consequences of these socio-technological obstacles to journalism. The article specifically seeks to answer three questions: How are AI technologies integrated in southern African newsrooms? What are the socio-technological barriers attendant to the use of AI in selected news organisations of sub-Saharan Africa? What are the implications of these socio-technological barriers to the process of news production in these newsrooms?
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The Climate Imperative: How AI Can Transform Africa’s Future
Africa contributes minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions but bears a disproportionate burden of climate change impacts. This article explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can bolster conservation and sustainability efforts across the continent. While challenges such as technological import reliance and digital divides persist, AI offers transformative potential by enhancing early prediction, disaster preparedness, and environmental management. Examples like Rwanda’s Wastezon, Ghana’s Okuafo Foundation, and Kenya’s Kuzi illustrate successful AI-driven initiatives. The article proposes adapting a public health prevention model-primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention-to structure AI-based environmental interventions. This approach would enable early detection of climate risks, timely mitigation efforts, and rehabilitation of damaged ecosystems. The authors also caution about AI’s environmental costs, including energy-intensive operations and resource extraction, advocating for ethical and Africa-centered AI solutions. Overall, the article argues that innovative, community-driven, and preventive uses of AI are essential for building climate resilience in Africa.
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Artificial intelligence skepticism in news production: The case of South Africa’s mainstream news organizations
This chapter demonstrates that the celebratory acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) appropriation, popular in mainstream scholarly discourses of AI, is often colored by an emerging, strong pushback by skeptical journalists. Using the case of South African journalists, we make two broad but related arguments. First, we argue that skepticism about AI among journalists in South Africa should be linked to the broader debates about the future and purpose of journalism in post-apartheid South Africa. Second, we argue that journalists view themselves as a peculiar community with a specific role of serving democracy—a role that will not sync neatly with AI practices. This chapter contributes to debates on AI and news production practices in less-explored global South contexts.
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Data journalism and investigative news reporting practices during the pandemic: The case of Zimbabwe and South Africa
This chapter interrogates the opportunities and challenges provided by data journalism to investigative journalists during the pandemic. Our findings reveal a paradoxical contribution of data journalism to investigative journalism. On the one hand, unprepared newsrooms and journalists found it hard to understand the practice, whose demands were “foreign” to some journalists. Yet on the other hand, data-driven journalism provided immense opportunities to investigative journalists to play their monitory role more effectively – holding the ruling elites to account, providing “lively and real-time” fact-based news on the pandemic, countering state propaganda on the pandemic and widening investigative journalists’ news sourcing routines.