TAMRA CAPSTICK-DALE: SA journalism adrift in a sea of AI

When you consider the inconvenient truths the media has exposed in SA over the past 15 years it’s surprising that attempts to bring it to heel have been so halfhearted. 

US president Donald Trump’s first 100 days of making America “grate” again demonstrate how different things could have been if our government had taken a “shoot-the-messenger” approach. Associated Press’s (AP’s) access to the White House has been curtailed after it ignored Trump’s “Gulf of America” caprice, attacks on 60 Minutes have set the clock ticking on the CBS institution’s future, and the First Amendment is showing every one of its 234 years. 

But while the virtual absence of government interference has left SA as one of a handful of countries on the continent to enjoy a respectable level of freedom of expression, according to the US nonprofit organisation Freedom House, large parts of our media have been the architects of their own decline.

Business models have failed to evolve, undermining the capacity of newsrooms, and survival of the fittest has come at the cost of extinction for many. Most of the rest are grimly clinging to life-rafts punctured by incessant cost-cutting. And as the waves of change threaten to engulf them, a tsunami is rolling onto the horizon. 

It comes in the form of AI and its potential to overwhelm what’s left of human intelligence in the media. But while the content it generates fills column centimetres, feeds algorithmic appetites and delights the bean-counters, it will do nothing to arrest the momentum of decline.

To see what I mean, consider this attempt by Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, to write an introduction for this article: “As we commemorate World Media Freedom Day on May 3, it is crucial to reflect on the state of journalism in SA, a nation with a rich history of fighting for freedom of expression.” 

That and the 800 words that follow are grammatically, factually and logically accurate at the same time as being blancmange — perhaps that should be “blandmange” — for the brain.

Make no mistake, the use of AI by the SA media has already taken root. Every day articles appear that are either heavily influenced by AI or written, at least in part, in response to a prompt. I have received questions from reporters posed to major multinationals where the questions are clearly generated by AI.

The insidious dumbing-down of journalism comes in other forms too, such as press releases that are published word for word — apart from the addition of a reporter’s byline.

Beyond the blandness, the dangers of AI are clear, especially when the US — home to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Siri, Alexa, Copilot — is falling under the influence of “tech bros” batting for authoritarianism and censorship in the shape of Trump.

Meta has sidelined fact-checking, Sam Altman of OpenAI contributed $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund, and the already blurred boundary between truth and falsehood could easily be further obliterated by AI in the hands of actors with agendas to advance and egos to massage. As the UN says, “big tech platforms use AI to filter and control what content is seen, making them powerful gatekeepers of information”. 

Intermediation

So what’s the answer? In a word, intermediation. In 2023 AP told its staff any material generated by AI should be vetted carefully, just like material from any other news source. In updated guidance a year ago, it said it would experiment with AI-generated Spanish translations, news summaries and headlines. However, “in each case, content begins with the work of an AP journalist, and an AP journalist will edit and vet the content before publication”. 

Unfortunately, SA media appear to be showing the same lack of foresight in its response to AI as it did when the internet started nibbling its lunch. Last year 18 journalists from Ghana and SA told researchers there had been no formal discussions in their newsrooms “about the application of AI or the ethical implications of its use in newsroom routines”. Writing in the journal Journalism & Media, the researchers said this showed “a huge gap in formal policy and training”. 

World Press Freedom Day, which this year focuses on AI, is a reminder that the media must start addressing this potentially existential threat. The hard policy work has been done by organisations such as AP. All that remains is to adapt their findings to our context and implement them. 

What’s at stake? “The free flow of information, media independence, and the global goal of ensuring access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms,” as the UN puts it. 

Think about that in the context of the role the media has played since Jacob Zuma became president in 2009 and the stakes for SA couldn’t be clearer.

• Capstick-Dale is MD of reputation management agency Corporate Image. She writes in her personal capacity.