Senior journalists and editors from Nigeria's leading news organisations gathered at the United States Consulate General in Lagos to develop a shared standard for disclosing their use of artificial intelligence to audiences. The workshop, convened by Oluwamayowa Tijani, an alumnus of the United States' International Visitors Leadership Program, aimed to tackle the credibility question of how honestly and clearly newsrooms tell their audiences about AI use. The session drew on almost three years of research into AI adoption in Nigerian newsrooms.
Tijani's research surfaced a "transparency paradox," where most journalists believe AI use should be disclosed, but few do so consistently. He identified three major reasons for this: the materiality threshold, articulation problems, and anticipated audience stigma. Tijani's research with news audiences found that Nigerian news consumers do not necessarily lose trust when a newsroom discloses AI use, provided the disclosure is specific and clear about what the AI did and what remained in human hands.
Delivering remarks at the workshop, Julie McKay, U.S. Consulate Public Affairs Officer, noted that the United States leads the world in AI, powered by innovation and excellence of U.S. companies, universities, researchers, and entrepreneurs. The U.S. Mission is proud to see its exchange alumni like Tijani promoting free speech, driving innovation, and advancing U.S.-Nigeria collaboration in technology. McKay added that Tijani, one of over 14,000 Nigerian alumni of U.S. government exchange programs, has taken on the challenge of convening this workshop.
Participants reviewed a set of disclosure designs to co-design what is most appropriate for their varied audience. The disclosure methods included editors' notes, end-of-story footnotes, on-image labels for AI-generated visuals, and published AI policies. After working in groups, the journalists made recommendations for possible industry-wide adoption, including publications of public-facing AI policies and caption-level disclosure of AI-generated images and videos.
The recommendations also included task-specific AI use disclosure in the form of an editor's note at the end of a report, and negligible AI use, such as spelling correction and punctuation, need not be disclosed individually. Tijani stated that if Nigerian journalists can agree on a common language for disclosing AI, one that audiences recognise and trust, they will be ahead of much of the world on disclosure.
Some of the organisations represented at the event include Punch Newspapers, Pulse, ThisDay, Media Career Development Network, PM News, Nairametrics, TheCable, BellaNaija, RadioNow, The Nation, TechCabal, FIJ, DevReporting, The Guardian, SciDev, Business Metrics, and AFP. Tijani is a doctoral researcher at Northumbria University, Newcastle, and director of projects at Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation.
The workshop aimed to promote transparency and trust in AI use in Nigerian newsrooms. The development of a shared standard for AI disclosure is expected to enhance credibility and trust in journalism. Key stakeholders are optimistic that the agreed-upon guidelines will be adopted industry-wide, setting a precedent for other countries to follow.
Key points
- Nigerian journalists and editors develop a shared standard for disclosing AI use in newsrooms.
- The standard aims to promote transparency and trust in AI use, addressing concerns about credibility and audience trust.
- The guidelines include publications of public-facing AI policies, caption-level disclosure of AI-generated images and videos, and task-specific AI use disclosure.
