TheCable Publisher, Kolawole has spoken on the viability of journalism amid AI interruption.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of an online newspaper, TheCable, Mr Simon Kolawole has stated that journalism remains viable despite Artificial Intelligence (AI) interruption.
Kolawole made this known while delivering a lecture at the monthly professional forum of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos, on Wednesday, February 5.
The programme, which was themed “Journalism in the Age of AI”, was organised to help journalists in training understand how to use AI effectively while maintaining ethical standards and human creativity in their reporting.
“AI is changing how news is created, shared, and consumed. However, the profession is still viable, provided journalists are open to constant learning”, the publisher asserted.
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He said, “So far, at TheCable, we’ve not sacked any staff on the grounds of AI replacing their job. You just have to empower yourself. The media and Journalism is a large field and the Nigerian audience is over 200 million. Either you’re bootstrapping your own media outlet or working with a big platform, you will remain relevant if you’re literate in AI.”
Issues surrounding the usage of chatbots and verification tools were extensively discussed at the forum with Mr. Kolawole emphasizing the need to report facts and not fiction.
The interface session allowed students to discuss the benefits of using AI in academic work and the profession, including speed in analysing data, spotting errors and fact-checking.
Kolawole also highlighted the downsides of using AI such as the lack of exercising judgement, inability to implement ethics, danger of plagiarism and tendency to mislead.
He referenced misleading AI-driven interpretations of recent news that led social media users to falsely claim that Lagos ports are not closer to the Atlantic than the planned port in the southeastern Obeaku community, among many other cases that had ensued.
To ensure that students remain valuable in the industry, the Provost of the institution, Mr Gbenga Adefaye, reiterated, “Just as how the institution has been doing and will continue to do, we enhance the ICT content of our curriculum because the world has moved on from analogue.”
Mr Adefaye asserted that while the institution may not directly incorporate AI courses into the curriculum yet, it will continue to meet the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) requirements by integrating sufficient technological content into both training and operational processes. The NIJ boss presented Mr Kolawole with an award of recognition and lauded his keynote lecture.
Held monthly, NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the NIJ professional forum is an interface session that is integrated into the students’ activities to bridge the gap between academia and industry, preparing them for successful careers in journalism and communication.
