Artificial Intelligence and Investigative Journalism: A Critical Discourse Approach

Background:The society has continued to receive new innovations from science and technology. The Internet has been the driving force for I formation and Communication Technology (ICT) to thrive. Recently, an advanced form of ICT known as Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged. Like every other form of technology, AI has significantly impacted journalism practice. Objective: This study interrogated adoption of AI in investigative journalism practice in Nigeria including the age-long concern for ethical implication of the use of AI in journalism practice. Methods: The study adopted library research design, relying on secondary data from books, journals and newspapers, among others. Result: There is relative high level of knowledge and use of AI in investigative journalism practice among journalists in Nigeria. The technology enables journalists to cover stories of greater complexity, with speed, using tools such as natural language processing, data mining algorithms and audio analysis. Conclusion: The study concludes that despite the innovative nature of AI in journalism practice, there remains concerns in the areas of privacy, transparency and accountability, and algorithmic bias. These pose serious ethical challenges to journalism practice. Unique Contribution: This work has provided new perspective and insight into the growing discourse on Artificial Intelligence which is rapidly impacting every aspect of human endeavours, including journalism. This paper will, therefore, help in pushing the frontiers of our understanding in this area and contribute to solving societal problems. Key Recommendation: While adoption of AI in investigative journalism is a plausible idea, there is need for periodic training and retraining of journalists to abreast with fact-checking tools to decipher authentic from fake news and as well keep abreast with ethical guidelines in journalism practice.