The question is no longer whether innovations—particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its associated tools—are relevant to journalism; that has already been established. What now matters are the ethical and operational considerations needed to ensure their use is both professional and responsible, helping us improve our responses to and management of the challenges they present.
Journalists can no longer afford to remain detached from innovation—a concern that has been raised repeatedly over the years. The real question is not whether journalists still matter in the face of automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI); they absolutely do.
The more pressing issue is: how can journalists remain not only relevant but also lead in this rapidly evolving media landscape? And what are we doing to equip them to navigate the emerging challenges that are reshaping the practice of journalism?
AI is transforming how news and content are generated, created, consumed, and distributed globally. It has expanded the reach of journalism while also offering powerful tools to verify, authenticate, and ensure due diligence in the information shared. For the professional and responsible journalist, AI has enhanced fact-checking and credibility, enabled the use of data and visualizations to interpret trends more clearly, and made content more engaging and timely through virtual assistants and chatbots.
AI and machine automated applications can do several things previously done by human; from smart cities, to facial recognition — not the basic on your phone, but cameras that can detect that you have been to four malls in the city within the past one week and recognize your face when you are exiting at the airport — to fully automated sales points and ticketing centers.
For Journalists, AI is now the most trusted companion in generating content ideas, social listening, translation, headline writing, speech recording, data gathering, fact checking, video/image editing, content filtering among others.
In its recently published guidelines on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Media Council of Kenya (MCK)—alongside the draft Code of Conduct for media practice—makes one key point clear: AI is not replacing journalists.
The final responsibility in the news production process lies with human beings, who remain accountable for all published content. Machines cannot be held legally or ethically responsible, and fully AI-generated content is considered tantamount to plagiarism, raising serious concerns about copyright infringement.
The guidelines emphasize that ethical standards remain as vital as ever—whether journalism is conducted manually or with AI assistance. Journalists are urged to ensure that AI use upholds fairness, accuracy, and does not perpetuate harm, reinforce stereotypes, or violate copyright laws.
Transparency is also critical: audiences must be informed when AI tools are used in content creation, including videos, images, and written reports. Furthermore, the guidelines stipulate that all AI-generated content must be reviewed and approved by human editors before publication.
Media houses are encouraged to establish clear takedown protocols for unprofessional or harmful content and implement rigorous quality control measures for user-generated submissions.
Journalists using AI must ensure that their AI systems respect human dignity, unless public interest in media coverage limits this principle as prescribed by law (do no harm), establish appropriate oversight, impact assessment, audit, and due diligence mechanisms for the utilization of AI (accountability), inform users when content is AI generated (transparency), ensure fair access to information by users ( fairness), ensure AI generated content is accessed by diverse audiences (Diversity), protects against intrusion into privacy, collect data as per the law (data protection), and above all ensure that AI systems and products uphold human dignity.
We cannot run away from the fact that in addition to the traditional challenges that have faced journalists over the years including constraints in exercising editorial independence and professional discretion by journalists because of corporate and advertisers influence, harassment and ownership control of editorial content, journalists are currently facing challenges brought about by innovations that have altered news processing, distribution and business models.
These changes do not entirely pose problems but present opportunities for media. Digitization implies fragmentation and the need for strategies to reach customers in new ways as well as the possibility to exploit contents and brands on new platforms. Internationalization means weaker protection of national media in small markets but also highlight the advantages of local market knowledge. Changing business models mean that advertising is under pressure but also implies an intensified push to create quality and trusted content for which users are willing to pay.
