Negotiated Adaptability: How Peripheral Actors’ Perceptions of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Shape Journalistic Practice

While Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming newsroom practices globally, studies often examine journalists and peripheral actors in isolation, overlooking the reciprocal influence these actors exert on journalism. This study addresses this gap by drawing on 94 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with journalists and peripheral actors in Kenya’s urban and rural areas. Specifically, we examine how Kenyan journalists and peripheral actors engage with GenAI, how they believe it should be used in newsrooms, and how their practices and perspectives shape journalistic adaptation. Our findings show that the adoption of and resistance to GenAI by Kenyan journalists illustrate “negotiated adaptability”—a form of technological adaptation in which journalists’ decisions about whether, where, and how to use GenAI are shaped through ongoing negotiations, including with actors located at the periphery of the newsroom ecosystem.