COUPLING JOURNALISM AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD

So says innovation -metaphorically- to all, “Marry the spirit of your age and you will be widowed in the next. Beware, I will haunt widows", simpler version, change as innovation moves the world. The world, due to innovation and mental outlook, has become a fast-paced globe and so, those who wish to survive in it must move with it. In the 19th and most parts of 20th centuries, Journalism, its role, media, actors, modus operandi etc. were defined and its evolution was linear and gradual; from town criers to Newspapers to radio to television and so on. The latter parts of the 20th century and thereof were characterized by technological innovation which produced a more connected world leading to quicker dissemination of information accompanied by disruptions in the world of journalism. Its evolution ha since then become mixed and rapid.

Journalism, with the help of the internet, moved from just being an art peculiar to the so-called “Journalists”, it became an art for everyone, thereby, birthing millions of citizens and private journalists. Social media, Vlogs, blogs and Newsletters has made it possible for anyone to become a journalist. Newspapers, Radios and television are no longer the only means of information dissemination, this has made information readily available to everyone with as easy as a click or a tap. “Breaking news” are now contemporary to the incident itself.

The decentralization of journalism has inevitably led to uncensored information dissemination, thereby, birthing fake news, hate speech, libel, slander etc. which now pervades “journalism”, diluting its essence. The main challenge the industry of journalism faces is finding ways to reduce the negative effects of the decentralization of journalism, governments in collaboration with journalists have come up with several policies and rules guiding public dissemination of information for example, Nigeria government, controversially, introduced the anti-social bill on 5th of November 2019 to criminalize the use of the social media in peddling false or malicious information.

Unforecasted Pandemic that hit the world, made journalism adapt, as journalists have had to rely more on other means (which seems to be the future) outside the “being physically present” traditional method to source for information in a moment the world was in dire need of information. This, coupled with the recent ENDSARS protest, has really tested Journalism’s resolve in Nigeria.

Using history’s template -the world gets disrupted at least once every 10 years and maybe once every 3-5 years in your country. At the forefront of all these disruptions is and will always be Journalism -not by choice but necessity- being the information nervous system of the world. As the world rapidly changes, journalism will become more decentralized, and so will its effects, both positive and negative. What this means for Journalism is a need for frequent and more rapid evolution.

What could be the future of this industry? I am of the belief that introduction of Artificial Intelligence will usher in a new era, our devices could, independently, be capable of detecting Newsworthy events apart from normal events. Imagine attending an event and with an AI ingrained device that can, with its sensors, capture different information like the event's attendees, location, record of the event (audio and video), pictures etc. and with these information create headlines, highlights and write-ups for the event all on its own. If perfected somewhat this would save the industry millions in operational cost.

Our phones could even become journalists on their own, such that as you go through the day, Newsworthy events can be detected by your device and suggestion can be made out of it to upload on the net. Take for example during accident or natural disasters like fire outbreak, flood, earthquakes, hurricane etc. our phones can through its cameras (its eyes) detect the incident and make a News out of it, send it to the appropriate authorities or even social media for awareness, all these with or without our consent, depending on our preferences and/or direness of the situation. Maybe even something as simple as creating news headlines, social media captions, and suggestions even memes all based on information garnered from our phone's activities over a period of time, these activities can range from pictures and videos taken, external sounds, noticed emotions, music listened to, site visited, movies watched, calendar schedules etc. these suggestions will even be more accurate in a technologically smart environment and Internet of Things (IoT) inclined areas.

Of course, incorporating Artificial Intelligence into the space of Journalism is another ball game on its own, since the essence of Journalism is truth verification and validity, which begs the question of who or what verifies its claims. Take for example, the Lekki Massacre how do one verify the numbers of casualties recorded by an AI ingrained device? So many unstable variables, like the environment, device stability, focus and all that could hamper the truthfulness of any information garnered by the AI device.

Nonetheless, you would agree with me that an emotionless AI drone mounted with night vision and heatmap detector would have given a more "closer to the truth" number of casualties than what we got from our best sources on the ground like DJ Switch. It means that AI incorporation into Journalism may not bring perfection, nothing can, but it is certain to help up its game, since it will give more objective claims and make indications about blurry claims. It is also noteworthy that this incorporation is best suited to technologically advanced countries -where almost everything is connected giving the AI devices more variables and factors to put into consideration.

The world will continue to become more connected and advanced; more people will have more unrestricted access to all sorts of information with easier ways to disseminate them, with more innovation; actors in journalism will not be restricted to humans alone -with bots becoming journalists in their own binarized right. Hence, mechanisms to regularly vet and audit the industry must be put in place by the government and other concerned parties to curb the excesses and maximize the advantages of journalism’s inevitable rapid evolution highlighted earlier. Note, the earlier they say......