Exploring the Potential of Artificial Intelligence for Supporting Indigenous Language Journalism Pedagogy in Nigeria

The African continent has more than 2100 indigenous languages, but many of them are not well- represented in the media. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology offers an opportunity to digitally incorporate these languages into news media and enable journalism pedagogy that emphasizes their use. However, there is limited research on how to integrate AI into journalism training in Africa, especially for indigenous languages. This study evaluates the benefits and challenges of integrating AI tools into journalism training in Nigeria to promote productivity and inclusion of indigenous communities in media content. Mixed research design via in-depth interviews was used to collect data from journalism schools in Nigeria, semi-structured survey with current journalist and secondary data available via AI tools. The findings suggest that using AI tools in journalism education can improve the quality of journalism and equip journalists with skills needed to succeed in the digital age. However, there is no immediate urgency to integrate native language journalism beyond entry level. A bureaucracy-free dynamic curriculum is needed to train budding journalists and retrain veteran practitioners, with funding for recent tools. Future research should broaden the scope and sample size to produce comprehensive and generalizable results for other AI contexts within and beyond Nigeria.