Ethical and operational challenges of artificial intelligence for local journalism in Nigeria

This study examines how local journalists in northwest Nigeria perceive and engage with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in news production. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with fifteen journalists working in local media organizations, the study explores levels of awareness of GenAI, perceived benefits and the ethical, cultural and operational challenges associated with its adoption. Findings show that journalists approach GenAI with cautious pragmatism, recognizing its potential to support routine newsroom tasks while expressing significant concern about misinformation, bias, cultural misrepresentation, audience trust and editorial accountability. These concerns are shaped by infrastructural constraints, linguistic diversity and conflict-sensitive reporting environments that characterize local journalism in the region. This study examines how local journalists in northwest Nigeria perceive and engage with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), also referred to as AI, in news production. The study contributes to emerging scholarship on AI and journalism in the Global South by foregrounding local perspectives that complicate technologically deterministic narratives of AI adoption. It argues for context-sensitive and ethically grounded approaches to AI governance that reflect the realities of local newsrooms rather than universalized models derived from the Global North.