LAGOS — Nigerian newsrooms and media organisations have committed to making their artificial intelligence (AI) policies publicly available and disclosing the use of AI in journalistic work.
The commitment was made on Tuesday at a workshop held at the United States Consulate General in Lagos, where senior journalists and editors from print, digital, television and radio organisations began developing a common standard for AI disclosure in Nigerian newsrooms.
The co-design workshop was convened by Oluwamayowa Tijani, a doctoral researcher at Northumbria University, Newcastle, and Director of Projects at the Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF).
Tijani said the session was informed by nearly three years of research into AI adoption in Nigerian newsrooms, which identified what he described as a “transparency paradox.”
According to him, although an overwhelming majority of journalists believe the use of AI in journalism should be disclosed, only a small number of news organisations do so consistently.
“Journalists do not consistently disclose use of AI for three major reasons,” Tijani said.
He identified the first as the materiality threshold, explaining that journalists often struggle to determine what level of AI involvement is significant enough to warrant disclosure.
The second, he said, is an articulation problem — determining how to clearly explain to audiences what AI did in the production of a story.
The third is anticipated audience stigma, with journalists concerned that disclosure could undermine public trust in their work.
Tijani, however, said his research involving news audiences showed that disclosing AI use does not necessarily lead to a loss of trust.
He said audiences were more likely to accept AI disclosure when it was specific, transparent and clearly explained the role played by the technology and what remained under human control.
“If Nigerian journalists can agree on a common language for disclosing AI, one that audiences recognise and trust, we will be ahead of much of the world on disclosure, not behind it,” he said.
During the workshop, participants examined various approaches to AI disclosure, including editors’ notes, end-of-story footnotes, labels for AI-generated visuals and publicly available newsroom AI policies.
Recommendations for Newsrooms
Participants recommended that media organisations develop and publish public-facing AI policies explaining how they use the technology in their journalistic operations.
They also recommended caption-level disclosure for AI-generated images and videos, while task-specific use of AI should be disclosed through an editor’s note at the end of a report.
However, participants agreed that minor applications of AI, such as correcting spelling or punctuation, should not require individual disclosure.
The participating news organisations subsequently committed to publishing their AI policies in accessible, public-facing formats, allowing audiences to understand how each organisation uses artificial intelligence in journalism.
The initiative is expected to contribute to the development of a shared approach to AI transparency and disclosure across Nigerian newsrooms.
