From data colonialism to deepfakes, AI is reshaping Africa. A new study reveals where Kenyan and South African coverage falls short, and offers practical steps to deepen and improve reporting.
A new study by Center for Information Integrity in Africa (CINIA) A study at Stellenbosch University, supported by DW Academy, takes a critical look at how artificial intelligence (AI) is covered in Kenyan and South African media. The research, titled “AI in media: Kenya and South Africa“, analyzes 57 articles and draws on two rounds of interviews with journalists over a five-year period (2021-2026). The research shows that AI remains a largely under-explored and often misunderstood topic for journalism in South Africa and Kenya. Here are the key findings.
Silent and reactive reporting
AI articles tend to be siled and reactive, framed as business, security or technology stories. AI is rarely presented in the context of its multidimensional, layered impact on society. Furthermore, the geopolitical aspect of AI is rarely interrogated in the mainstream media. Coverage is often triggered by crises or scandals rather than proactive public interest journalism.
eight major subjects
Eight key themes emerged from the research: AI for development, inclusion and social change; AI as a tool for disinformation and political manipulation; data colonialism and lack of infrastructure; AI governance, ethics and policy; AI and workforce/labor exploitation; Impact of AI on journalism and media; Authoritarian technology and crime; and environmental concerns.
1. AI for development, inclusion and social change
Optimistic narratives of AI in African media coverage often emphasize the technology’s potential to support development, education, health care and social inclusion. Rather than defining AI primarily as a disruptive or threatening technology, these accounts present it as a tool capable of addressing structural challenges such as educational inequality, skills shortages, limited access to services, and financial exclusion.
2. AI as a tool for disinformation and political manipulation
As well as optimistic narratives about innovation and development, African media coverage of artificial intelligence increasingly highlights concerns about the technology’s role in disinformation, political manipulation, fraud and state surveillance. In these framings, AI is often portrayed as a double-edged tool: capable of improving governance and administrative efficiency, but also vulnerable to abuse by political actors, cybercriminals, and governments seeking greater control over digital spaces.
3. Data colonialism and lack of infrastructure
The debate about data colonialism specifically reflects the power dynamics behind technology and AI, and touches on issues of data extraction from less developed countries by tech companies based primarily in China and the Global North. They reflect issues of exploitation and privacy, and many draw parallels with historical narratives of colonial extraction.
4. AI governance, ethics and policy
It is a topic that seeks to shed light on the rules, ethics, and practice of AI and how it shapes society. While such stories can often seem quite abstract, focusing on the ecosystem in which AI operates, some reporting fleshes out the bones with practical real-world examples.
5. AI and workforce issues, labor exploitation
Workforce issues and AI have revolved around stories of job displacement, including in the field of journalism. As AI tools take on tasks that humans previously performed, and a disproportionate number of texts focus on skills, readiness and training, the media sector and job displacement. Several interviewees described editors as “technophobic”, while older journalists appear to be resistant to adopting new technologies.
6. Impact of AI on Journalism and Media
African media debates are increasingly highlighting how artificial intelligence is reshaping journalism, by introducing new tools for reporting and creating new risks to press freedom, information integrity and newsroom stability. Generative AI can produce deepfakes and large amounts of synthetic content, while algorithmic systems on digital platforms promote misleading narratives. These developments complicate the ability of journalists to verify information and maintain credibility in a rapidly evolving digital information ecosystem. At the same time, journalists are exploring how AI can support newsroom practices, for example analyzing large datasets, summarizing research and organizing investigative materials.
7. Authoritarian technology and crime
Totalitarian technology is broadly described as the use of modern technologies, particularly AI, surveillance systems, and digital tools such as Internet control, by governments to monitor, manipulate, and repress populations. Its founding principle is that technology is not neutral, and that those who control it can weaponize it. The intersection of crime and mass surveillance has gained popularity in both Kenya and South Africa.
8. AI and the environment
A new emerging topic of interest to journalists is the environmental impact of large-scale AI expansion. This prompts debate about the impact on infrastructure, regulation and AI of Africa being a major player in the global economy and the opportunity cost and limited resources. African companies are joining the global race to develop AI infrastructure. This will require investment in data centres, which are known to have a significant impact on the environment as they require land to house them, electricity to run them and water to cool them.
Vendor Stories and Knowledge Gap
Given the obvious knowledge gap about AI among senior editorial staff, tech companies are in a position to fill that void, supplying journalists with copy that casts AI in a favorable light. Structural and business constraints were also addressed. Journalists cite technophobia among senior editors, fear of AI-driven job displacement, lack of resources in newsrooms, and story competition from important social issues as reasons why AI coverage is shallow and hard to commission.
Global North framing dominates
The topic of AI is often presented through a Global North lens, with little contextualization or interrogation of these issues from an African perspective amid resource and access barriers. This occurs against the backdrop of underdeveloped policy frameworks for AI on the continent generally and especially in newsrooms. Coverage often mirrors international narratives about the AI arms race between the US and China, with insufficient reference to African realities, including digital exclusion, lack of infrastructure, and language marginalization.
recommendations
The report makes several recommendations to improve coverage of AI in Africa. Practical help may include:
- Fellowship and funding opportunities For journalists dedicated to coverage of AI, and for investigative journalism projects on AI. This will also contribute to more in-depth journalism on this topic.
- Cross Border Journalism Initiative Support should be supported to enable closer monitoring of AI reporting in Africa. It also provides an opportunity to conduct joint investigations and potentially provide a global platform to showcase the best in African AI journalism.
- Development of AI Reporting Toolkit For journalists in Africa. It can serve as an AI literacy resource as well as a tool to guide journalists toward key thematic areas to consider when preparing a story on AI. The toolkit could include a practical newsroom AI reporting manual with terminology, key thematic areas, and angles to consider.
- Newsroom Training on Reporting AI This can be integrated into broader training being conducted on the operational use of AI in newsrooms. Training should be locally relevant and practically focused.
- Showcasing the best AI stories from the fieldSimilar to the World Press Photo Contest for photojournalism, it can help to give public prominence to the subject.
Karen Allen is a former BBC correspondent with 25 years’ experience covering Africa and the Middle East. She is now an independent consultant advising organizations globally on digital transformation, information integrity and emerging threats to journalism. He has conducted studies on the impact of information interference and manipulation on elections in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda and has consulted for the Institute for Security Studies, the Center for Information Integrity in Africa (CINIA) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. He is a Fellow at Stellenbosch University and a Senior Researcher at CINIA.
Herman Wasserman is Professor of Journalism at Stellenbosch University and Director of the Center for Information Integrity in Africa. Before starting his academic career he worked as a newspaper journalist. He previously taught at the Universities of Sheffield, Newcastle, Rhodes and Cape Town, and has held several visiting professorships, including at Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich). He has published widely on journalism ethics, media, conflict and democracy in Africa, and disinformation. He has consulted for OpenAI, UNESCO, DW Academy and Reporters Without Borders, among others.
